


half remembered, halfway across the world

by wreckingtomlinson



Series: breath of the wild AU [3]
Category: One Direction (Band), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe, Amnesia, Breath of the Wild Spoilers, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Fantasy Violence, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Light Angst, Minor Character Death, Multi, Survivor Guilt, it’s not graphic but there’s plenty of fighting u know how fantasy adventures are
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-03-09 17:49:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 44,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13486641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wreckingtomlinson/pseuds/wreckingtomlinson
Summary: “Why am I here?”“Well, isn’t that the million-rupee question,” the old man muses. “Why are any of us here? What’s our purpose?”Louis rolls his eyes. “I just woke up. I don’t have time for this philosophy shit. Why am I here, as in, why did I just wake up in a cave? Where did I come from? What’s the point? Wait, is this the afterlife? Am I dead?”“No, my child, you are very much alive. It seems you have been given a second chance.” The old man sits back down and stokes the fire. “Make the most of it.”~or, the Breath of the Wild AU where Louis has been asleep for 100 years and wakes up just in time to save the world, Liam is an honest Rito warrior, Zora prince Harry may or may not be in love with the Hylian hero, Zayn is the one person Louis can't quite figure out, and Niall eats rocks.





	1. shouldn't be here 'cause i should be dead

**Author's Note:**

> i realize this is an au that literally nobody asked for but I AM SO HYPE FOR THIS FIC OKAY. it took me 10 months but i finally started playing breath of the wild cos i got a switch for christmas and i fucking love it. so naturally, i had to write an au. big big love to [bella](http://ot4tat.tumblr.com) for beta'ing this and helping me make it make sense, and s/o to [emma](http://lesbianharrie) for being my other beta as well as my moral support/copilot/walkthrough googler while i play! 
> 
> a few more things: knowledge of the game/legend of zelda universe is not needed. content warnings will be added in the opening notes of each chapter as they apply.
> 
> title is from [outlines by all time low](https://youtu.be/7y2DkwtIc1M)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis. That’s him. He’s Louis. Unfortunately that’s all he knows. 
> 
> That, and he’s naked and lying in a pool of shallow water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter title is from [lights of home by u2](https://youtu.be/R-EclbRVHZw)

_Open your eyes…_

He floats in limbo, brain still too sluggish to recognize that he can’t even feel.

_Open your eyes…_

He is awake, aware, but the only thing he can perceive is the voice, feminine and sweet and sounding like it’s coming from the other end of a tunnel miles away.

_Wake up, Louis…_

Blue eyes snap open and the first thing he takes in is more blue. All around him is a pale glow illuminating his surroundings. He’s in a cave of sorts, small enough for him to see the walls and ceiling but large enough to not make him feel claustrophobic. A ring of blue lights embedded in the ceiling above him seems to be the source of the ethereal glow.

The voice has gone, but the sound echoes in his mind. 

Louis. That’s him. He’s Louis. Unfortunately that’s all he knows.

That, and he’s naked and lying in a pool of shallow water. 

He sits up too quickly, the blood rushing from his head and making him dizzy. Groaning, he rests his face in his hands. He has a lot of questions, but the first one he wants answered is _Where are my clothes?_

Wobbling to his feet is a process. Not wanting another blood rush, he crawls to the raised edge of the pool and sits on it, sliding his feet to the floor.

Well, now that he’s standing, he feels a hell of a lot better. It’s not like he’ll be swinging a sword around anytime soon—

He shakes his head, confused. Why did his mind jump straight to swinging a sword? Is there danger around? He holds his breath, listening for any other sounds, but the cavern is empty. He’s alone. 

Now that his vision is clear, he sees orange dots on the walls, connected with golden lines so they resemble constellations. By the door is a pedestal that glows blue. 

He walks towards it, his first steps tentative. His legs are surprisingly steady though, and his confidence grows as he nears the odd podium. The blue light gets brighter as he approaches, and when he raises a hand to touch it, it _moves_.

The sound of stone grating against stone fills the chamber as moving parts at the top rotate and flip, revealing a gray slate about the size of his foot. It, too, glows orange and blue, like everything else in this cavern, apparently. In the center, an elaborate design of a single open [ eye ](https://res.cloudinary.com/teepublic/image/private/s--ldkp4-Kv--/t_Preview/b_rgb:191919,c_limit,f_jpg,h_630,q_90,w_630/v1467211651/production/designs/565051_1.jpg) stares at him. Three triangles that look a bit like eyelashes point upwards from the top of the eye, while what appears to be a tear falls from the bottom.

_That is a Sheikah Slate._

The voice from before rings in his ears again. It's too close for comfort, feeling like someone is talking inside his head, but at least it seems like it'll be helpful.

_Take it. It will help guide you after your long slumber._

Curious, he picks it up. It's surprisingly light, with a handle on one side to help him hold it. He holds it up at eye level, trying to figure out its purpose, when suddenly the center lights up.

It's actually kind of nifty. Symbols at the bottom tell him the current time and temperature, and there’s even what seems to be a short-term weather forecast, if the tiny sun and cloud symbols are anything to go by. In the lower right corner, there's something resembling a map. He guesses the blinking yellow triangle is his own location. The only thing it's missing is the date.

While he was poking at the slate, the door had opened, allowing him to enter the room beyond.

The next room holds some chests and barrels. He drops to one knee and fiddles with the latch of the first chest. Inside is a shirt, ratty and threadbare, but hey, it’s a shirt. He pulls it on and almost coughs as dust flies off the garment. The sleeves stop just past his elbows and it’s sort of tight across his chest, but it’s better than nothing. If there’s a shirt in here, maybe the next one has some trousers.

Thankfully, it does. Like the shirt, the trousers are similarly too small—they barely reach his shin but they’re comfortable enough. There’s a pair of boots in there as well, made of thin but fairly sturdy suede. They’ll do for now. Another rummage in the first chest and he pulls out a worn leather shoulder bag and a belt with pouches attached to it. One of said pouches happens to fit the Sheikah Slate perfectly, which seems a bit suspicious but he buckles it on anyway. At this point, he won’t question anything useful or helpful. The barrels hold nothing, so he heads toward another door on the opposite side of the room.

There's a pedestal just like the one the Sheikah Slate popped out of, and just when he's wondering what to do with it, the voice speaks up again.

_Hold the Sheikah Slate up to the pedestal. That will show you the way._

He does, lightly tapping the corner of the device to the center of the podium. It glows blue, as does the eye symbol on the door in front of him before sliding open. It’s the same eye on his Sheikah Slate and he'd really like to know what it means. Just another question he's come up with in the last five minutes.

The sunlight is blinding after getting used to the blue glow inside the cave. He stands motionless for a full minute, squinting and shielding his eyes until he adjusts to the sudden onslaught of light and he can see enough to find the way out.

_Louis, you are the light—our light—that must shine upon Hyrule once again. Now go._

She doesn't have to tell him twice. He runs now, eager to see what lies beyond this cavern. He splashes through a puddle and scrambles up some rocks, following the cheerful sounds of birds chirping. He can smell the dirt, smell the outdoors, and finally he exits the cave. But he doesn't stop there.

The grass bends under his feet as he runs, soles flattening the leaves as he rushes to the edge of the cliff he sees before him, and looks down.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

From here he can see for miles and miles, the view unobstructed. To the northeast, a massive mountain—a volcano?—rises from the earth. Below him, plains and forests sprawl out endlessly, rivers cutting through the landscapes. Far in the east are more mountains, the peaks white with snow, and flat-topped desert buttes dot the western horizon.

And directly ahead of him is a swirling black and purple mass engulfing a castle. Just looking at it gives him a feeling of intense apprehension. It glows, but unlike the comforting blue glow he awoke to, it feels like darkness. It reeks of evil. He turns away and looks to his right, where the warm glow of a campfire catches his eye. Standing beside it is a man in a dark hood, who just stares at Louis before turning and walking away.

As creepy as it is, Louis does want answers, and this man might have them. He begins to walk down the gentle slope to the campfire, breathing in the fresh air and sighing happily. He feels comfortable out here, though he can’t put his finger on _why_.

On the way down, three shiny red apples dangling from a tree branch catch his eye. As though on cue, his stomach growls. Part of him wonders if the apples are safe to eat, but the rest of him just wants something to eat. Fuck it. He jumps for them, but his fingers are still six inches from the fruit. Grumbling to himself, he shimmies up the tree and grabs them, sticking two in his pack and taking a bite out of the third. A perfect blend of sweetness and crunch explodes in his mouth, and he hums in appreciation. Good, so there's decent food around. That's a good sign, he hopes. Either that or it's been so long since he had food at all that anything tastes amazing. He doesn't want to dwell on that yet. 

The hooded man hunches over the campfire, a few more apples lying on the ground near him. He doesn't seem to acknowledge Louis’ approach, which puzzles him. 

“Um, hi?” Louis says softly, throat dry like he hasn’t spoken in a long time. He gets the sense he hasn't.

The man looks up, hood tilting back just far enough to let Louis glimpse a fluffy white beard and old, weathered face. “Well, hello there, young one. It's rather rare to see another soul around these parts.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

The old man chuckles at his snark. “Feisty. I’m just a simple woodcutter. I’ve lived here alone for many years, and for many years, I assumed I was the only one around for miles. It appears I was wrong.”

“Okay, so where _is_ here?”

The old man laughs again, shaking his head. “You’re a curious one. This is the Great Plateau. Legend has it that the entire land of Hyrule sprung forth from this place, many thousands of years ago.”

Hyrule. The word sends a shot of warmth through Louis’ chest. It feels like...home. Louis’s gaze drifts past the old man to a structure in ruins. It looks like the remains of a temple of some sort, with tall narrow window slots  and a steeple rising above the roof.

The old man follows Louis’ gaze and stands, pointing to the ruins. “That was the Temple of Time. It used to be a place of festivals, ceremonies, you name it...but many years have passed. Now, as you can see, it’s been reduced to a shadow of its former beauty. 

The Temple of Time. Louis squints at it. Time sure took its toll, that’s for certain. “Why am I here?”

“Well, isn’t that the million-rupee question,” the old man muses. “Why are any of us here? What’s our purpose?”

Louis rolls his eyes. “I just woke up. I don’t have time for this philosophy shit. Why am I _here_ , as in, why did I just wake up in a cave? Where did I come from? What’s the point? Wait, is this the afterlife? Am I dead?”

“No, my child, you are very much alive. It seems you have been given a second chance.” The old man sits back down and stokes the fire. “Make the most of it.”

A second chance. At _what_? Having a second chance implies he failed at some point. But it seems the old man won’t be much help at all, so Louis leaves him to start exploring. Maybe he’ll stumble across some clues somewhere.

“Be careful,” the old man calls after him. “There are monsters lurking about. Take a weapon. That axe, for example.”

Said axe is lodged in a tree stump some ten feet in front of Louis. He grabs it and lugs it along with both hands as he trots down the hill.

Suddenly, there’s a flash of red and an ugly porcine creature leaps out of nowhere and blocks his path, growling and waving a tree branch. It’s shorter than him, but the head and snout are disproportionately large and he really doesn’t like the sight of the fangs right in front of his face.

Louis doesn’t hesitate. He swings the axe at it, slicing through its body and sending it sprawling down the hill, where it dissipates in a puff of purple and black smoke.

Louis blinks. “What the fuck?” he mutters to himself, running down the hill to examine where the monster had gone up in smoke. The only evidence left of its former existence are two horns and a fang, left in a neat pile in the grass. He picks up a tooth and pockets it. Maybe it’ll come in handy.

His Sheikah Slate chooses that moment to start beeping in its pouch, demanding his attention. Sighing, he pulls it out, staring at the screen until a yellow dot blinks into existence, a lonely speck in the blue-black. 

_Follow the Sheikah Slate, Louis._

And now the voice is back. Louis really should give her a name, if only to have something to call her in his head.

Johannah.

The name springs to mind unbidden, and he has no idea where it’s come from but he decides to keep it. Louis looks at the slate again, trying to figure out where the blinking dot is. It appears to be straight ahead, so Louis straps the axe to his back, tucks some stray hairs behind his pointed ears, and sets off.

The sun is high overhead, a pleasant warmth on his face as he walks. No more monsters bother him for the time being and the terrain is flat; in about twenty minutes he reaches an odd-looking mound. His Sheikah Slate beeps again, louder now, and vibrates in his pocket. That’s going to get real old, real fast.

The tiny triangle that shows his location is directly over the blinking yellow dot. _This_ is where he’s supposed to be? He climbs to the top of the mound, but nothing happens. He stomps, he pokes the dirt, he taps the slate to the ground, but there’s still no evidence that he’s in the right place. In a fit of desperation, he drops to one knee and tries drawing the eye symbol in the dirt. He just hopes the old man isn’t watching because Louis definitely looks like an idiot.

“Well, I’m here. What do you want from me?” he mutters, glaring at the Sheikah Slate and stepping off the mound.

He miscalculates, though, and his foot slips out from under him, sending him rolling down the side of the mound. When he finally comes to a stop, he’s not at the base of the mound. Instead, he’s in a shallow depression of sorts, with—oh.

There’s a pedestal right in front of him that he would have missed if he hadn’t fallen down here. Well. He knows what to do now.

He presses the Sheikah Slate to the pedestal and expects a hidden door somewhere to open, but that’s not what happens. First, the slate sinks into an indentation, and moving stone parts flip it around and embed it into the pedestal so it’s flush with the surface.

Then the ground under his feet starts rumbling, and judging by the sudden squawking of a flock of birds, the entire plateau must be feeling the tremors. He ducks, wedging himself in a small space between the pedestal and the dirt wall, and covers his head, waiting for it to be over.

It gets worse. Now the ground isn’t just rumbling, it’s _moving_. Everything around him is shaking like it’s the end of the world and it’s—lifting. Yelping, he stumbles, falling on his ass as he sees the landscape start to shrink below him. He’s trapped on the platform, helpless to do anything but cling to the pedestal like a limpet as he’s propelled into the sky.

Finally, it stops, and everything feels deathly silent in the wake of all the disruption. Louis unsteadily rises to his feet and peers out over the landscape.

He must be a hundred feet up, easily. He can see out past the Great Plateau, to the castle in the distance, but what catches his eye are the other towers that have cropped up on the horizon. They all look similar, tall needle-like structures that Louis immediately thinks of as dicks. Dicks rising into the sky. He snorts to himself.

Johannah is back, pleading in his head. 

_Louis, try to remember…_

“I can’t! I don’t know how!” he shouts into the air. “How can I remember when I don’t know what I’m supposed to remember?” A golden light suddenly shines from the blackened mass surrounding the castle, a lambent ray piercing his vision.

_You’ve been asleep for the last 100 years, Louis. When the beast regains its power, this world will face its end._

The black mass shifts, congealing and dissolving until it takes the shape of a dragon-like beast, with evil glowing eyes and a gaping maw. Its jaw snaps, smoky teeth threatening to sink into the castle’s turrets.

_You must hurry, Louis! Before it’s too late..._

“What the actual fuck is going on over there and what the fuck am I supposed to do about it?” Louis asks no one, though he thinks he already knows the answer to the second one. He’s probably supposed to stop it, somehow, but he’s drawing a blank on how. Even with his limited knowledge, he figures running in with a woodcutter’s axe isn’t going to do much.

The Sheikah Slate pops out of the pedestal, the eye flashing briefly before a map fades into view. Oh, finally, he has an idea where he’s going. He picks the slate up and paces around the platform, comparing the map to the landforms he can see from his new vantage point. There are also some strange-looking structures scattered about the Plateau. They look metallic, or at least stone, and at first Louis thinks they’re on fire before he realizes the orange glow surrounding the base of them is light. It reminds him of the chamber he woke up in, though he can’t place why. Curious, he starts the long climb down the platform, clinging to the rough but convenient ladder-like lacing that runs up the side of the tower.

Once he reaches the bottom, he shields his eyes from the sun, trying to work out the closest structure he can go to.

“Oh ho ho!”

He whirls around at the sound of the old man laughing. The old woodcutter looks like he’s flying, gliding through the air effortlessly and alighting on the hill next to Louis with the softest _thump_ imaginable.

“What is that?” Louis asks.

The old man folds up the contraption and ignores Louis’ question. “What a sight to see.”

“What are you _talking_ about?”

“The towers.” The old man points to the giant dicks in the sky. “They all erupted from the ground out of nowhere. Almost as if some sort of ancient, long-dormant power awoke them...”

“They look like dicks,” Louis says with a completely straight face.

The old man just laughs again. “That they may, but I find it no coincidence that they arose now. I can’t help but wonder if it has anything to do with that intriguing slate on your hip.”

He points to the Sheikah Slate, and Louis involuntarily shrinks away. “Stop looking at my hips.”

“Louis, please, don’t make it weird. Forgive an old man’s curiosity, but when you were up on the tower, did anything _…interesting_ happen to you?”

Louis still isn’t sure about the old man, so he hedges on the side of caution. “No. Um, what’s the giant thing eating the castle?”

“Ah, that monstrosity.” The old man sighs. “That is Calamity Ganon. A hundred years ago, that very beast was the cause of Hyrule’s destruction. It appeared out of nowhere and laid waste to the kingdom. So many innocent lives were lost…”

Louis frowns. “But the castle is still standing?”

“For the last hundred years, Hyrule Castle has managed to contain the beast, but just barely. The Calamity’s evil has spread to other monsters, infecting their souls and turning them to the darkness.” He seems to notice the faraway look in Louis’ eyes as they both gaze out toward the castle. “Do you intend to make your way to the castle?”

Louis shrugs. “I guess so. I mean, if I can figure out how to get off this plateau.”

“Leaving the Plateau is nearly impossible. You’ve seen the cliffs. You’d die if you tried to jump down.” 

“I could climb.”

“Too steep.”

Louis huffed. “So did you just ask me that to tell me I’m stuck? What about that thing you came down on?”

“Observant.” The old man scratched his beard. “I could give it to you, in exchange for a few favors.”

“...Ew.”

“What—no. You really should calm down. I know of some treasure that lies nearby. Come with me; I will show you what I mean.” The two of them make their way up a small hill, and one of the odd stone-metal things comes into view.

“Do you see that? It started to glow the moment the towers erupted from the ground. Something tells me a place like that might hide treasure inside it…”

Louis can see where this is going. “So you want me to go in and find something.”

“In exchange for the paraglider, of course.”

Well, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, so Louis supposes that’s fair. “Okay. What’s the treasure?”

To Louis’ annoyance, the old man just shrugs. “I’m not sure. But like I said, it kind of screams ‘hidden treasure,’ doesn’t it?”

“Fine, fine, I’m going.” Louis makes sure his Sheikah Slate is tucked safely into its pouch on his hip before setting off.

The path to the structure is bumpy, but free of monsters, thankfully. Once he arrives, he can see it up close. The top of the structure is about ten or fifteen feet off the ground, shaped like the bottom half of a cone and tapering to a flat top. There’s a stone door, a small blue and gold circle embedded in the platform much like the one on top of the tower, and of course, there’s also a pedestal. Louis touches the slate to the pedestal and is rewarded with the slow opening of the door. Horizontal beams flip and swivel to reveal an alcove just big enough for him to stand in, and the orange light around the structure turns to blue. Once again, the mysterious eye symbol is present again, this time in a circle on the floor in the alcove.

“Shit is whack,” Louis mumbles, stepping onto the eye symbol. Once he’s inside, the floor moves, the stone under him moving down to lower him underground. He can’t shake the distinct feeling he’s about to die.

He’s carried down a tube of light and set down in a spacious cavern that he can’t believe is underground. That blue glow is everywhere.

_To you who sets foot in this shrine, I am Oman Au. In the name of the Goddess Hylia, I offer this trial._

The disembodied voice comes from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, filling the space completely and echoing in his brain. Yeah, he’s definitely about to die.

Louis steps inside, humming in thought as he takes in his surroundings. In front of his is a set of giant gates, too tall to climb over and the bars placed too close together for him to slip through. On the floor in front of the gates are two massive panels. He walks over to those first, tapping at them with a dirty fingernail. They’re metal. He tries to pick one up, but it’s too heavy and he’s panting pathetically after just three seconds of trying.

He really wants to tell the old man to get the damn treasure himself, when he spots it. Another damn pedestal. Maybe it’ll tell him what to do.

The top of the pedestal has an empty slot, just like the one on top of the tower. Louis puts the slate in, and once again, the slate is flipped around and sinks into the flat surface of the pedestal. The screen flashes once with the eye symbol, and the next thing he sees is a pinkish graphic of a horseshoe magnet. Text fades into view. 

“‘Magnesis. Manipulate objects using magnetism,’” Louis reads aloud. “Grab on to metallic objects using the magnetic energy that pours forth from the Magnesis Rune. Objects held in the magnetic snare can be lifted up and moved freely.’ Oh, I get it!”

He plucks the slate out of the pedestal and goes back to the metal slabs, holding the slate in front of him.

“Okay, so…” He taps the rune symbol and instantly, a magnetic wave shoots from the slate. He points it toward one of the slabs and it begins to rise. Well, this is pretty fucking cool. If he raises the slate, the slab goes higher. If he moves the slate to the left, the slab does the same. Carefully, he moves the panel up and off to the side, revealing a hole in the ground with a ladder for him to climb down. Tapping the rune again stops the magnetic snare, and the slab drops to the ground with a mighty crash.

So it’s less of a fight-to-the-death sort of trial and more of a puzzle he’s got to be clever about. He scurries down the ladder and continues on.

In the next room, he uses the rune to remove a metal block from the wall, allowing him to move into the next space. But once he does that, something mechanical whirs to life on the other side of the wall.

It’s a short, squat robotic thing that scuttleS about autonomously. It would be cute if it isn’t currently charging a laser beam and aiming in his direction. Yelping, he scrambles back into the other room just as the laser decimates a section of the floor where he was just standing. Okay, so this is half fight to the death, half puzzle. He risks another peek over the wall to get a better look at the arena.

The robot sits on a raised platform, and surrounding the platform is—water. Surely if he could push it into the water somehow, it would cease to work, right? Now how to do that…

His gaze falls on the metal block he’d just moved, and for the first time since he woke up, he grins. 

Two minutes later, the robot splashes into the water and fizzles out, inert. Feeling rather proud of himself, Louis lets go of the metal block and keeps going. There’s one final set of giant doors to get through, but they’re metal and he knows what to do now. Louis slips through and is met with a strange sight, which—considering all he’s seen and done today, says a lot.

In front of him is a set of steps leading up to what looks like a glass case with the eye symbol etched into it. Curious, he gets closer to see what’s inside the case. Once he does, he shrinks back in revulsion.

It’s a shriveled up figure, still fully clothed, with long white hair and the omnipresent eye symbol painted on its forehead. It sits cross-legged, hands folded in eternal prayer. Oh, Goddess, he hopes he doesn’t have to fight this thing now. He reaches a hand up to poke at the glass, touching the eye.

Instantly he realizes it’s not glass. Whatever it is, it reacts like water when he touches it—it bounces, almost, ripples emanating out from where he’d tapped. And then it shatters, sending pieces flying in every direction. Louis ducks, but he watches the shards float toward him and float _right through him_.

The voice from before rings out again as he stares at the figure.

 _You have proven to possess the resolve of a true hero,_ it tells him. _I am Oman Au, the creator of this trial. I am a humble monk, blessed with the sight of the Goddess Hylia and dedicated to helping those who seek to defeat Ganon. With your arrival, my duty is now fulfilled. In the name of the Goddess Hylia, allow me to bestow upon you this gift upon you. Please accept this Spirit Orb._

A translucent purple sphere materializes out of thin air and floats toward him, shimmery at the edges and heading straight for his chest. This must be the treasure the old man was referring to. He tries to grab it to put in his pack, but it keeps going until it hits his chest and disappears. He feels it push inside him, somehow phasing right through his skin and bones to sit in his chest cavity, but it doesn’t hurt. It just feels like someone hit him with a pillow right in the sternum.

 _May the Goddess smile upon you_ , the monk’s voice says as its form dissolves into light and fades away. Everything keeps disappearing and frankly, it’s a little unnerving. Where is it all going? At the same time, Louis feels himself being lifted off the ground before his vision goes white.

When everything clears, he finds himself standing back at the entrance to the structure—the shrine, as the monk had called it. It seems he’d been transported to the surface automatically, which he has no argument with.

As expected, the old man is waiting there for him.

“Okay, I have your treasure. It’s like, in my chest, or something, but I can probably get it out. Somehow. Can I have the paraglider now?”

The old man chuckles. “Well...I may not have been completely honest with you. I did say I would give you the paraglider in exchange for _a few_ favors, and this is only one.” Ugh. The problem is, he’s right. “But,” he continues, “fortunately for you, they won’t be difficult. You found this treasure, did you not? There are three more shrines on this plateau, all holding an identical treasure.” 

“They’ll all look like this, right?”

“They will. I suggest climbing back up the tower—you may be able to see where they are.”

“On it.”

Getting the next three orbs is a trip and a half. Louis finds out very quickly that each shrine holds different puzzles, so getting through each one takes a good deal more thinking than he expected. He does get more runes for his Sheikah Slate, though, and that makes things easier. He freezes his ass off to find a shrine on top of a mountain that grants him the Cryonis Rune so he can make blocks of ice; he almost gets fried alive by some giant immobile robots on his way to a shrine that gives him remote-controlled bombs; and he’d had to get wood chopping lessons from the old man to make a bridge to lead him to a shrine with the Stasis Rune to freeze objects in their place.

The journey to each shrine was fraught with monsters, with more of the ugly pig-like creatures that Louis learns are called Bokoblins. Fortunately, Louis had the opportunity to nick weapons off the ones he killed—having an actual sword, rusty and flimsy as it is, makes him feel a hell of a lot better than an axe strapped to his back. The bow and quiver of arrows he found don’t hurt, either.

The entire adventure took him more than a day, and he’d had to stop and rest for the night once the moon rose. The old man had offered to let Louis sleep in his bed, but he’d opted for a cozy patch of moss instead. But finally, finally, he has all four Spirit Orbs shoved somewhere in his chest—he really doesn’t want to think too much about it—and he’s ready to make the trade. Unless the old man suddenly remembers four more shrines hanging around the plateau.

He makes sure he has all his arrows in order as he leaves the final shrine, intending to head back towards the old man’s cottage and pester him for the paraglider. What he doesn’t expect is for the old man to be waiting for him once he gets out.

“What now?” he yells. “Don’t fucking jumpscare me like that. These shrines are no piece of cake, you know.”

The old man just regards him with a steady gaze. “Louis, it is time for me to tell you everything. But not here.”

“Then where?”

“Look at your map. Find the place central to all four shrines. It might help to imagine an X with the shrines as the points, and to find where they intersect. That is where I will be waiting.” With that, the old man takes off once again.

Louis shakes his head. There must be something in the shrooms he’s been picking. Grumbling, he pulls out the Sheikah Slate and taps at the map, peering at it and trying to work out where to go.

“The—Temple of Time?” he mutters, zooming in on the map. “Well, I guess that’s where I’m going.”

It’s a long trek down the mountain, but he reaches the temple just as the sun has begun to set. “I’m here!” he yells out to no one hoping the old man is around. There’s no answer.

Louis wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t get off this plateau for another week. He wanders in the ruins of the temple, fingers curiously grazing the crumbling stone. Shrooms grow in the corners and grass covers every inch of where the floor used to be, but as dilapidated as it is, there’s something large at the far end that catches Louis’ eye.

It’s a statue at least four times his height, a basic and nearly featureless form of a feminine figure. This must be the Goddess Hylia that all the monks in the shrines mentioned. Not sure what he should do, he just shrugs and turns away. He’s not sure if he wants to think about the Goddess right now. She wouldn’t mean much to him anyway with his memory in this state.

He walks back outside to find the sky dark, the sun reduced to a sliver over the horizon. “Uh, hello? We had a deal!” he yells, looking around.

“Louis! Up here!”

Louis looks. Oh, Goddess, now the old man’s on the roof. 

“Hello, Louis!” the man shouts down to him. “Meet me in the tower!”

Meet him in the tower. This means Louis has to scale the sheer temple walls and crawl up there. 

“Why can’t you come down here?” he yells, but the man has already disappeared. Fuck. Louis jumps.

It’s an arduous climb up, but he makes it in one piece, thankfully. He picks his way across the crumbling roof, jumping over gaps and almost falling twice, before he finally reaches the tower.

The old man stands at the open window, gazing out toward the dark castle. “Hi?” Louis pipes up. 

The man turns around. “Ah, you made it. You have done well so far, Louis. But I regret to tell you that I have been keeping something from you.” He pauses, probably waiting for Louis to ask another question. Louis keeps quiet.

“My name is Bulian Julian Hyrule, and I am—was—the last king of this land of Hyrule.”

Wait. What?

The old man throws off his hood and stands up to his full height as blinding blue light begins to surround him. Louis blinks. Does everything have to be this dramatic? The light engulfs the old man completely, and just when Louis thinks he’s up and disappeared after dropping that bomb, the light fades.

He’s still an old man, but the tattered brown cloak has been shed for a blue cape trimmed with gold, and the hood replaced by a glittering crown.

Fuck. He really is a king. Louis has been mouthing off to a king.

“You’re a king?” is all he can sputter out.

“Yes,” the king says. “I apologize for misleading you when we met, but I felt it would be unnecessary to burden you with your destiny the moment you awoke from your slumber.” 

Bulian Julian Hyrule, the last king of Hyrule. That’s a mouthful. And quite repetitive. “So...wait, that’s your castle,” Louis says as it dawns on him. This, coupled with that King Bulian had told him at the base of the tower, is enough to start helping his muddled brain put the pieces together. “Oh, Goddess…hang on, are you dead?”

King Bulian gives him a regal glare. “A rude question,” he sniffs, “but a valid one. Yes, I am, as you so crudely phrased it, _dead_. I am here in spirit, to guide you and tell you my story. Will you listen?”

Louis nods.

“Very well.” The king’s face becomes pinched as his eyes refocus on the castle. Louis stares, disgusted at the mass devouring the castle but unable to look away as the diseased wave slithers through the sky. 

“The Great Calamity, as I told you, destroyed nearly everything in its path. Including me. I have been stuck here, as a spirit, for the last one hundred years. But before I speak further, you must know how the Calamity came to be. Ganon was born into this kingdom ages ago. Stories of his evil are the stuff of legend, stories told through the generations. But there was also a prophecy. ‘The signs of a resurrection of Calamity Ganon are clear, and the power to destroy it lies dormant beneath the ground.’ We took the prophecy to heart, and began mining out large areas of the ground, hoping to find something to defeat Ganon.”

“Did you?”

“We did. We found the Divine Beasts, ancient marvels of technology created by our ancestors thousands of years before us and piloted by the fiercest warriors. We also found Guardians, a legion of autonomous machines who could fight at our sides. These discoveries were consistent with the legends told since Ganon came into existence.

“We then turned to our own history, to the history of the land of Hyrule. In every age, when Ganon arose, there was a princess who held a sacred power, and there was a knight chosen by the sword that seals the darkness. One hundred years ago, when the threat of Calamity Ganon was nigh, there was a princess set to inherit the ancient power of the Goddess, and a loyal knight at her side. We knew we had to follow in the footsteps of our ancestors. So we selected four individuals, the most skilled and courageous of their kind, from across Hyrule and tasked them with piloting the Divine Beasts. We called them the Champions. 

Louis doesn’t like where this story is going. “But they failed,” he says, voice hollow.

The king’s expression becomes solemn. “The princess, her knight, and the Champions nearly sealed Ganon away. Nearly. But Ganon was cunning, and responded with a plan that none of us could have foreseen. He took control of the Guardians, and of the Divine Beasts, and turned them against us. Suddenly we no longer had the ancient technology on our side. The Champions all perished, unable to banish the darkness that devoured the Divine Beasts they had been tasked to command. The princess’s knight fought valiantly in her defense, but he was gravely wounded in the battle, and collapsed on the ground at her feet.” King Bulian heaved a sigh. “And thus, the kingdom of Hyrule was laid to ruin at the hands of Calamity Ganon.”

Louis scratches his head, trying to absorb all he heard. “Fuck, that’s a depressing story.”

“But the story does not end there,” King Bulian continues. “The princess survived, taking up the fight against the Calamity completely alone. That princess was my own daughter—my dear, sweet Perrie.”

Perrie. The name sounds familiar, but not familiar enough to trigger a memory, like a word on the tip of his tongue that won’t pass his lips. That’s the voice he’s been hearing. That’s why he saw a light shining from the castle like a beacon. But if she’s the princess, then...

“And the brave knight, who fought until the very end…that knight was you, Louis.”

Louis puts his face in his hands. He can’t look at the king knowing he failed to protect the man’s daughter. Shit. This...this must be his second chance, somehow. Somehow he survived and now he’s back, meant to right the wrongs of a century ago. “But...how am I alive?”

“After you collapsed, you were taken to the Shrine of Resurrection, where you awoke earlier today. The words you have been hearing are from Princess Perrie herself, calling out for your help as he continues to wage war against Ganon from inside the castle.”

At that revelation, Louis finally looks up. So she’s still alive! There’s hope yet! For the first time since he woke up, the path seems clear. He’s to meet up with Perrie and help her seal Ganon away. Surely there’s a lot to do in between, but at least he has an end goal in sight now.

King Bulian sighs again, softer his time, fists clenching at his side. “I failed to save my kingdom, Louis, and I have lost my chance. But here you stand, given a second opportunity to free Hyrule from its shackles. I realize that my own failure makes it unfair to ask anything of you, but...please. You must save the princess, and do whatever it takes to annihilate Ganon.”

“How?” Louis taps at the flimsy steel sword strapped to his back. “I feel like I’m gonna need a little help. Or at least a better sword.”

“Ganon still has control over the four Divine Beasts, as well as many of the Guardians scattered around Hyrule, which makes it dangerous. Make your way toward Kakariko Village.” King Bulian points out the window, to a dirt road snaking its way through the hills. “Follow the road to the east. Your Sheikah Slate will show you the exact location of the village. Once you arrive, seek out an elder by the name of Jade. She will be able to guide you on your quest to defeat Ganon. She may also know how to help you regain your lost memories.” 

“She can do that?” Louis perks up.

“She can help you, yes.” The king reaches under his tunic and pulls out something dark red. “The paraglider, as I promised you.”

Fucking finally. “Thanks.”

“With this, you’ll be able to glide down to the plains below this plateau without killing yourself. Hopefully. Go now,” King Bulian tells him, the blue glow starting to envelop him once again. “Go, and save Hyrule.” The light flashes once, and when it winks out, the king is gone.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> right so that was a bit of a story dump and i apologize, but i wanted everyone who isn't familiar with the premise of breath of the wild to understand! i feel like this chapter felt Very Serious but trust me, this is in no way a Serious Fic. it's ridiculous and will only get more ridiculous as he meets everyone else. 
> 
> come say hi on tumblr at my [main blog](http://maybetheyrefireproof.tumblr.com) or my [loz sideblog](http://leafviolin.tumblr.com)!


	2. against the odds and on your feet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Giant leaf people. Hundred-year naps. Inexpensive horse rentals. Louis would say his life can’t get weirder, but he has a feeling that’s not the case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posting a day early since i'll be away this weekend! this chapter title is from [new york (saint in the city) by the academy is...](https://youtu.be/Evq_dD_YIaY)

Save Hyrule. Louis can definitely do that—after he’s taken a bath. Two days of fighting monsters and scaling cliffs has left him feeling rank, so he jumps down from the temple tower and heads for a lake he’d seen yesterday. He’s disposed of all the monsters that had surrounded it, so he’s able to slip out of his clothes and bathe in peace.

The water is clear enough to let him see the fish swimming around his legs as he soaks, rinsing two days of dirt and grime from his skin. It stings him in places, alerting him to cuts and scrapes he’d either forgotten to care for or didn’t even notice he’d sustained. He cleans those too, wincing as he does, before deciding he’d better do something about his hair.

He’s taken to tying it back with a crude headband torn from the hem of his shirt to keep it out of his face; he pulls that off and starts on the task of trying to comb it with his fingers. His hair is wild—there’s no better word for it. It’s long enough to graze his shoulders, but it kicks out in wisps wherever it pleases, tufts sticking out over pointed ears and curling by his chin. Somehow he does manage to get the knots out of it before the moon is fully risen.

Now that he knows the old man is actually a king, Louis decides to take him up on his offer of a bed. He treks across the plateau toward the log cabin, letting himself in and moving a wooden table in front of the door once he’s inside. A few spicy peppers lie on the table, which he swipes to put in his pack before tucking himself into the narrow bed to go to sleep.

He wakes to the sunlight streaming in through the gap between the logs that make up the walls, and yawns before getting out of bed. He’s got to leave the Great Plateau today.

He dresses, pulling on the warmer doublet and trousers he’d found the day before. The threadbare shirt and pants get left behind—there’s no point in carrying them. Breakfast is two apples baked in the campfire.

Before he sets off, he sweeps the area one last time, gathering apples and mushrooms and herbs to take on the road. King Bulian had said to head for Kakariko Village, and if the map on his Sheikah Slate is anything to go by, it’s going to be at least a few days’ journey away. It’s not even _on_ the map—the glowing point representing the village lies outside of the visible part of the map. But if climbing this tower made this section appear on the map, Louis reasons, if he climbs the other towers he should be able to access those regional maps as well.

He ascends the tower once more as the wind picks up and checks the map again. The glowing dot is due east of here, which means… He spins in circles trying to orient himself, before locating a river. It snakes through the plains, between two tall cliffs that look like a single mountain cut in half down the middle, and there’s even a road nearby so he won’t be endlessly wandering. He hopes.

“Here goes nothing,” he mutters, whipping the paraglider out and studying it. At least it looks sturdy. Before he can psych himself out by thinking too much about it, he opens it and jumps.

His stomach drops as he steps off the edge of the tower, half expecting the glider not to work and for him to go plummeting to the ground. But it doesn’t happen—he glides along effortlessly, and even controlling it isn’t difficult. All he has to do is tug on the handles and he turns. Once he gets over the initial panic of being a hundred feet up, it’s actually kind of cool. Birds zip past, and as the ground gets closer, he can make out stone ruins dotting the landscape, in the same state of disrepair he’d seen the Temple of Time.

He lands softly on a grassy hill just off the road. He knows from wandering around the Great Plateau that the peaks are farther away than they look, so he decides not to waste daylight.

The road is long and he’s very, very alone. Aside from the Bokoblins that attack him and the foxes and deer that dart across the path, he’s the only living thing around as far as he can see. At least the scenery is worth looking at.

He pulls an apple from his bag and munches on it as he walks. The birds are chirping, there’s a light breeze, and the sun is warm on his face—if he didn’t have somewhere to be and a Calamity to stop, he’d surely take his time out here and wander wherever he pleased. But he does, and he also has memories to recover, so he’s got to prioritize here. No time for meandering.

Along the way, he finds another shrine. He still has no idea what to do with the five spirit orbs he now has, or where they go once they’re shoved in his chest, but maybe Jade will be able to tell him what they are. He does find some money in the form of red and green rupees in a rusted chest by the side of the road, so that’s useful.

Night begins to fall as he nears the river, so he’s getting closer. On the opposite bank, one of the towers rises into the sky, glowing orange. Encouraged, he picks up his pace, making it to the peaks as the moon rises.

Suddenly, the ground in front of him explodes as a skeletal figure with red glowing eyes emerges, growling in his face and swiping at him.

“Fuck off!” he yells at it, backpedaling and reaching for his sword. It punches him in the shoulder before he can get to it, knocking him to the ground. He kicks at its leg, and the bones collapse in a pile. Louis scrambles to his feet and runs, heart pounding in his chest.

The snarling doesn’t stop, though, and he risks a glance back. The bones levitate and…reform the skeleton. The headless form reaches for the skull and pops it back on its neck before starting to chase after Louis.

“I said, fuck off!” Desperate now, Louis grabs a rock and smashes the thing’s skull. Finally, it falls to the ground, inanimate, and disappears.

Well, the head and legs disappear. The arms still remain, and they’re still moving.

“Talk about spoils of war,” Louis mutters, kicking a wriggling arm out of the way. “Ew.”

Not wanting to risk meeting any more of those, he decides to set up camp for the night. The tower can wait until morning. He finds a hollow to hide in and sets down to make a fire. Finally that flint he picked up on the plateau has some use. Once the fire is going, he starts moving rocks to clear a space for himself to sleep in.

He moves one rock that looks suspiciously like a leaf, and the next thing he hears is a strange jingling sound, following by a shrill giggle. He yelps, dropping the rock and reaching for his sword.

“Oof!” he hears a tiny voice yell from under the rock. Wary, he picks it up.

There’s a tiny…leaf person. There’s no other way to describe it. It’s about a foot tall and looks like a chubby tree branch, with a leaf for a face and tiny twigs for arms and legs. It looks harmless, but he can’t be too sure.

“You dropped a rock on me!” it shouts at him in its reedy little voice.

“You scared me!”

“I didn’t mean to,” it says, deflating. “I was just excited to see you. Wait, can you see me?”

Louis furrows a brow. “Of course I can see you.”

It gasps, jumping into the air and doing an excited dance. “You can see me! Nobody has been able to see me in a hundred years! You are very special, yes.”

Louis doesn’t get how it couldn’t be seen. Sure, it’s small, but it jingles when it moves. How could anyone miss it? “Uh, thanks? I guess?”

“Here! Take this!” it chirps, grabbing his hand and shoving something into his palm.

“What is this?” he asks, opening his hand to see a golden seed about the size of his thumb nail.

“It’s a Korok seed! As a gift from me, a Korok!”

“So if I plant this, do I grow another one of you?”

It chitters. “No! Keep it! You may need it!”

The leaf thing shows no signs of leaving anytime soon, so Louis pockets the seed. Might as well hang onto it. “Okay, okay. Uh, I was gonna go to sleep, so are you gonna go to sleep too?”

“Yes! I will sleep now.” It immediately falls flat on its face and begins to snore quietly.

Louis just stares at it. What a weird, weird world.

When he wakes in the morning, the Korok is gone. “Was it something I said?” Louis muses out loud, packing up his things and dousing the fire before leaving.

The sky is pale pink when he emerges from the hollow, the sun just starting to peek over the tops of the mountains. The tower he’d seen the night before is just across the river, but there’s no bridge in sight. He grits his teeth and dives in.

Fortunately, it’s not too cold or too rough, so he makes it across with a bit of effort and drags himself up the bank. Now he’s soaking wet. “Should have kept the other shirt,” he mutters, taking his pants off and wringing them out as much as he can before pulling them back on. It’s not like anyone will see him out here, but he’d rather not be stabbing monsters naked from the waist down.

This tower looks almost exactly the same as the one on the Great Plateau. The platforms jutting out from the sides are spaced farther apart, which will make climbing it a little more difficult, but Louis thinks he can do it.

He does it. It’s not easy, and more than once he thinks he’s going to lose his grip before he reaches the next platform, but he does it. The new vantage point doesn’t let him see beyond the peaks, but at least he’ll be able to access this part of the map. He hopes. He’s still not entirely sure how all this works.

He inserts the Sheikah Slate into the pedestal and watches it twist and turn, before popping out once more. “Come on, show me the map,” he mutters, staring intently at the screen.

A new section to the east of the Great Plateau shimmers into view. Thank Hylia. Now he can actually see what’s ahead, instead of being surprised. The path from here seems pretty straightforward: continue on the path between the peaks and stay left at the forks. It’ll take a little more than a day, but that’s not terrible. He pulls the paraglider from his bag and jumps off the tower, landing back on the other side of the river.

The shadows are still long as he passes between the peaks, and he raises a hand to run his fingers along the rock. It looks almost as though it had once been a single mountain, and something split it. Maybe the river? he wonders, looking at the water rushing past, before continuing on.

About fifteen minutes later, he sees the river separate into two distributaries. The path forks, too, with a bridge over each new branch of the stream. He goes left and spots another shrine in the middle of a pond just a hundred feet ahead. Oh, cool. When he goes closer to check it out, he sees it’s surrounded by thorns on all sides. Yeah, fuck that. He keeps walking until he spots what looks like a giant platform tent with a horse head coming out of the top.

Soft guitar music spills from somewhere inside the tent, gently plucked melodies that sound as relaxed as the people sitting outside. Next to the campfire is a man with long black hair and a giant backpack on that’s shaped like a beetle. He looks friendly, sitting there humming to himself and toasting an apple over the fire, so Louis approaches him first.

The man looks up and waves. “Hiya, fellow traveler!”

Oh, Goddess, it’s too early in the morning for this kind of cheer, but Louis plasters a smile on his face anyway. “Can I sit with you?”

“Sure!” The man scoots over, offering Louis a baked apple. “I’m Steve.”

“I’m Louis. Hey, can you tell me if I’m going the right way to get to Kakariko Village?”

Steve nods, taking a bite out of his own apple. “Mhm. Keep going straight, and then at the fork you’re gonna go to the left. There’s a sign, too. You can’t miss it. I suggest taking a horse. I mean, you can do it on foot, but it’ll take you twice as long.”

“I don’t have a horse.”

“Well, let’s change that! Hey, hey Calum!” Steve yells. Someone pokes his head out from a flap in the tent. “Can we get my friend a horse?”

“Your friend is going to have to get his ass over here himself if he wants a horse,” the guy yells back. Louis takes that as his cue to get up.

Next to the open flap is a crude sort of counter where the guy is standing. He’s tall, easily over six feet, with messy curly hair and a bored expression. “You’re Steve’s friend?” he drawls, looking Louis up and down.

“Uh, yeah. He said I can get a horse?”

“You looking to buy or rent?”

“I can rent a horse? How does that work?”

“Me and my friends have stables all over Hyrule,” Calum tells him. “You can rent a horse from any of us and return it to any stable, anywhere. Like, you can rent one from me here and return it to Ashton out in East Akkala. Or rent one from Luke in the Gerudo Desert and return it to me.”

“And how much will it be? I…don’t think I have that much money,” Louis admits.

“Twenty rupees.”

“A day?”

“Total.”

That sounds like a suspiciously good deal, but Steve seemed nice and Steve seems to trust these guys, so Louis bites. “Well, fuck, I’ll do it, then.”

Calum squints at him. “Have you ever been on a horse?”

He must have, if he used to be the princess’s appointed knight way back when. So when he tells Calum that yes, he’s been on a horse before, it’s probably not a complete lie.

“Okay, okay. Let me see who I have…” Calm flips open a hardcover book and runs his finger down the page. “I can give you Ted. He’s fast, but easy to handle, and he knows the roads around here. He’s not one to go wandering for no reason. You can even whistle for him and he’ll follow you like a puppy.”

“Sounds good.” Louis roots through his bag of rupees and pulls out a red one. “You said twenty, right?”

“Yeah, that’s perfect. Give me a few minutes to get him ready.” Calum drops the rupee in his pocket and leaves the tent, whistling to himself.

Louis takes the opportunity to poke his head inside the tent. He sees a half-dozen beds, all made neatly with clean sheets, and a small table with four stools in the corner. Is this where Calum lives? And Steve, too? He shrugs and heads back to Steve, who’s now roasting acorns.

“Do you live here?” he asks.

Steve shakes his head. “Nope. I’m a traveling salesman. Speaking of, want to see what I have?”

“Uh…no, thanks.”

“Aw.” Steve frowns, then brightens up again. “Hey, Calum has your horse.”

Louis turns around to see Calum adjusting the reins on a blue roan. “Goddess, that was quick.”

Steve hums. “He and his friends run the best stables in Hyrule. They’re all amazing with horses, and not to mention, the stables double as inns at night.”

So that’s what the beds were for. Louis dusts off his trousers as Calum brings Ted over to him.

“You’re ready to go. Make sure not to ride too hard. Where are you headed?”

“Kakariko Village,” Louis tells him.

“You should be there by the afternoon, even if you’re going slow. And take these. Ted loves ‘em.” Calum waves two strange-looking carrots in Louis’ face before tucking them into the saddlebag. “Hey, I didn’t get your name.”

“I’m Louis.”

Calum quirks a brow. “Louis, huh? I haven’t heard that name in a long time. My mum used to tell me stories about Louis, the princess’s knight. He’s a pretty cool person to be named after. Too bad he died a hundred years ago.”

“Yeah…got a lot to live up to, I guess.” Louis takes a deep breath before placing a foot in the stirrup and mounting. Ted snorts but doesn’t move. “Alright then, I guess I’m off. When do I have to bring Ted back?”

Calum shrugs. “Whenever.”

Louis really should stop questioning these convenient deals. “Uh, see you around, then.” He nudges at Ted’s sides with his heels and they’re off.

The path is easy and he lets Ted set the pace at an easy trot. He goes left at the sign like Steve said to, and takes the opportunity to fully take in the landscape around him. It’s rugged but not mountainous save for the two peaks he’d just passed between, and the weather is unremarkably mild. He crosses another bridge, where another tiny leaf-man pops out and gives him another Korok seed, and then the path starts to steepen, rock walls rising to his left as Ted starts to breathe more heavily to keep the pace up the pitch. Monsters flit around just off the path, but none approach him, seemingly wary of Ted.

He rounds a corner and sees a giant version of the leaf-faced person he met last night. This one is at least four feet taller than Louis, with leafy branches growing out of its head and a shoulder bag similar to Louis’.

“What the fuck is that?” Louis asks Ted, like he expects his horse to answer. He shrugs and heads toward the tree-thing.

As he nears, the tree person perks up and starts chittering. “Hello! Hello! Hello!”

“Yeah, hi, I heard you the first time. What’s up?”

The tree person gasps. “You can see me?”

“Of course I can see you. You’re, like ten feet tall.”

“You can see me!” The tree person waves its stubby arms happily. “I’m Shawn! Can you help me?”

“Why not.”

“Bokoblins stole my priceless maracas!”

“And I guess I’m going to get them,” Louis interjects.

Shawn perks up, clapping and hopping in place. “Oh! You will? I would be so happy! And there might be something in it for you, too!”

“For me? Besides just feeling like I did something nice for someone?”

“Yes! My maracas are not just priceless, they’re…” Shawn strikes a pose with both arms up in the air. “Magic!”

Magic maracas. It’s not the strangest thing Louis has ever heard of. “Fine, I’ll go get them. You said the Bokoblins took them?”

“Yes! They hid them in a chest up that way,” he explains, pointing up the path. “But they’re not very far away. You’ll see an archway made out of rocks that leads to a flat clearing. The chest is under there.”

Louis studies the rock formations around them, mind whirring as he tries to think of a strategy. Surely charging in won’t do much good. He does have arrows and his remote bombs… “If I climb up this rock here, can I reach the clearing?” he asks, pointing to a giant flat-topped boulder that’s about forty feet high.

Shawn hums and nods. “I think so! Try it, and if not, just go the other way.”

“Wish me luck. And watch my horse, please.” Louis sends a quick prayer to the goddess and jumps, scaling the rock as quickly as he can. When he reaches the top, he sprawls out on his stomach to creep up to the edge so the monsters don’t see him.

There are four of them, all blue and all ugly. One of them guards a golden chest where they must be hiding the maracas. Louis huffs. At least he won’t have to engage too much. He conjures up a bomb and drops it.

It’s a good thing the Bokos are dumb, because they all immediately surround the glowing bomb, prodding it with their crude sticks. Louis presses a button on the Sheikah Slate to detonate it, and that’s all he needs to do. The bomb explodes in a burst of blue light, sending the monsters flying off the edge into the river a hundred feet below. Louis grins and whips out his paraglider to float down to the chest and kick it open. Lo and behold, Shawn’s maracas are inside.

Louis’ brow furrows as he picks them up. They’re bright red, with swirling white circles painted on them, but they make no sound. Louis might not remember a lot of things, but he’s pretty sure a musical instrument should make some noise. Maybe that’s the magic of them.

He sticks the maracas in his bag and goes back to Shawn, using the path this time. The giant tree-man starts hopping again once he spots Louis. “That was quick! You really are a hero!”

“Nah. I mean, all I did was drop a bomb.” Louis fishes the maracas out of his bag. “You know they don’t make noise, right?”

Shawn deflates a bit. “That’s the next thing…you don’t happen to have any Korok seeds, do you?”

Korok seeds. It rings a bell, and Louis thinks back to the tiny leaf-person he met last night, and the one he just encountered by the bridge. “Wait, are they these?” Louis takes out the tiny golden seeds.

Shawn screeches in delight. “Yes! Can I have them so my maracas make noise again?”

Louis doesn’t see any need for them so he shrugs and hands them over. Shawn chirps and swipes them from Louis’ hand. A minute later, he starts giggling. “They work!” he declares, shaking each one to demonstrate.

“Cool. Do you need anything else from me?”

“I must reward you for helping me!” Shawn chitters. “They’re magic. So in exchange for a few more seeds, I can grant you the power to shrink your weapons so you can store more in your bag!”

Oh, that’s handy. Unfortunately Louis doesn’t have more seeds, and he tells Shawn as much. “Can I come back if I find more?”

Shawn hums again, swaying on his feet. “It’s a long way back to Korok Forest…but maybe I’ll see you between here and there! Bye bye!” He waves, the maracas rattling gently, and totters away, heading back toward Calum’s stable.

Giant leaf people. Hundred-year naps. Inexpensive horse rentals. Louis would say his life can’t get weirder, but he has a feeling that’s not the case.

Ted has been waiting patiently the entire time, not letting out so much as a peep. “You’re the best horse I’ve ever met,” Louis tells him, patting Ted’s neck as he feeds him one of the weird carrots. “Well, the only horse. But you’re still the best.” Ted snorts and noses at Louis’ bag in search of more. Louis gives him an apple instead.

Fortunately, the rest of the journey to the village is uneventful, and a little more than two hours have passed by the time he starts seeing signs of civilization. Colorful flags are strung up between the rock faces, and just a few feet beyond those are wooden archways. A sign staked into the grass tells him he’s reached his destination.

“Well, we’re here,” he mutters to Ted, who just whinnies softly in response. They walk slowly to the end of the path, where Louis can see the entire village laid out beneath them.

The village is nestled in a small valley, each house on its own little terrace, and surrounded by tall oak trees. It seems peaceful.

Louis dismounts and leads Ted through the village, looking for someone to talk to. Any one of these houses could be Jade’s, and he’s not about to go knocking on doors to find out which one. Nobody seems to be out despite it being the middle of the day, which strikes Louis as odd. Finally, he spots a man kneeling in a pumpkin patch.

“Excuse me!” Louis calls to him. “Can you help me?”

The man looks up and removes his wide-brimmed hat. “What can I do for you, traveler?”

“I’m here to see Jade,” Louis tells him.

“Jade? She’s in the big house down there.” The man beckons Louis closer and points. “You can’t miss it. You’ll have to get Mark and Dan to let you in, though.”

“Thanks.” Louis shakes the man’s hand and whistles for Ted to follow him. Ted tosses his mane and trots along after Louis.

The farther into the village he walks, the more signs of life he begins to see. Children laugh and run, a young woman greets passersby outside a shop of some kind, and a white-haired man stands behind an easel, humming to himself as he paints. A smaller version of the Goddess Statue Louis saw in the Temple of Time sits on an island in the center of a pond, accessible by a bridge. Covering her stone face is a cloth adorned with the mysterious eye symbol again. He really hopes he finds out what that means soon or it’s going to drive him nuts.

Two men stand at the base of the steps leading up to Jade’s house, one on each side.

“Halt,” says the one on the left. “No one is allowed inside Jade’s house.”

“But I have to see her! I was sent here.”

“Oh? And by whom?”

Louis opens his mouth to respond before realizing nobody would believe him if he told the truth. The long-dead king of Hyrule sent him? They’d laugh in his face. “I just need to see her. It’s really important!” he protests.

The one on the right rolls his eyes. “Yes, and I’m Princess Perrie.”

“Wait.” The one on the left squints at Louis. “What’s that on your hip?”

“What is it?”

“Is that—a Sheikah Slate?”

“It is!” the other one breathes. “We apologize for giving you trouble. We just never thought this day would come.”

“Please, go on. We’ll look after your horse.” Both guards move aside so he can pass.

“Why does everyone keep staring at my hips?” he asks Ted. Ted snorts. “Yeah, I wish I knew, too.” He hands the reins to one of them and climbs up the stairs to push open the giant double doors.

Inside, it’s dark, the small two-story lit only by candles. The windows are shuttered. A figure sits cross-legged on a stack of silk pillows in the center of the room, a large hat covering the face. For a second, Louis think it’s one of the shriveled up monks that live in the shrines.

“Hello?” Louis croaks out nervously.

The figure looks up to reveal a young-looking woman who looks about his age. Well, as old as he appears to be. Her chestnut brown hair is tied back in loose buns at the nape of her neck, and the eye symbol is painted on her forehead in lavender pigment. Though the candlelight is dim, he can see how wise her eyes look. She sits like a frail old lady, but Louis can tell she’s anything but.

“Well then, Louis, oversleep a few decades, why don’t you?” she demands, but she’s smiling. Louis likes her already.

“Sorry. The princess woke me up.”

“Is that who we should blame, then? Fine by me. Come here, let me see you. Oh, you haven’t changed a bit.” She tilts her head slightly. “I know it’s been a long time, but...you don’t remember me, do you? Jade, the advisor to the king?”

Louis shakes his head ruefully. “Unfortunately not. I feel like a lot of things would be easier if I could just remember shit.”

“Stupid sleeping magic, whatever it was, making you forget even me,” Jade sighs. “So you actually did lose your memory completely. What a shame.”

Scuffling and giggling sounds come from somewhere in the loft, loud in the dark room. Jade huffs. “Eleanor, if you’re going to fawn, you might as well do it down here.”

A moment later, a young brunette comes bounding down the stairs, one hand pressed to her mouth to muffle her laughs. “Hi,” she squeaks out before dissolving into giggles again.

“Louis, this is my niece, Eleanor. You’ll have to excuse her. She’s very excitable.”

“Oh, wow, you’re just as handsome as all the legends say!” Eleanor exclaims, plopping down on a cushion by the window.

“Um…” Louis has absolutely no idea how to respond to this. “King Bulian sent me to you.”

“Yes, I figured. And you have the Sheikah Slate, I see.” Jade nods toward his hip pouch. “I have so much to tell you, Louis. Where should we start?”

“Can we start with the eye symbol? What’s that? It’s everywhere.”

“Ah. That’s the symbol of the Sheikah people.” Jade taps her own forehead. “I’m Sheikah. So is Eleanor, and everyone in this village. We’re one of the races of Hyrule just like the Hylians and the Zora and the Gerudo.”

Zora? Gerudo? What? “And...I’m not Sheikah.”

“You’re a Hylian. Look,” Eleanor pipes up, tucking her hair behind her ears, and Louis realizes she’s showing her lack of pointed ears. He touches the tips of his own curiously.

“Then I guess we’re starting at the beginning, seeing as Bulian did a shit job of explaining things,” Jade grouses. “Did he even tell you _anything_ , or did he just send you to me with no information and a half-functional Sheikah Slate?”

“Uh, he told me about what happened a hundred years ago.” Wait. Half-functional? What else can this chunk of rock and metal do?

“Great, so he probably neglected to tell you ninety percent of the story.” Jade sighs. “You might as well sit down and get comfortable.” She clears her throat, waiting for Louis to take a seat. He picks a cushion a few feet away from Eleanor.

“As you know,” Jade begins, “after you fell in battle, Princess Perrie wanted to save you. The only way to do that was to place you in the Shrine of Resurrection. And then she went to face Ganon all alone. She wanted me to tell you something when you finally woke up, but since whatever the fuck she did wiped your memory, I’m starting to think now’s not a good time to tell you.”

“Why not?”

“It won’t make sense. So much of what Perrie wanted me to tell you assumes you—well, it really just won’t make sense, trust me. I mean, I can tell you now, sure, but since you really don’t remember anything, it won’t mean anything to you.”

“So how do I get my memories back?”

“Well, here’s the other thing. Perrie was very adamant about you acknowledging that me passing on the message means you’re fully willing to risk your life for the good of Hyrule. She was a dramatic one, but this time it was fair. That means,” Jade adds, “you could walk away right now. You don’t have to step back into your role as the princess’s knight, and you could build your life from the ground up, with no ties to the royal family. You could be whoever you want. Fuck, you could marry a Gerudo and start a bug collection if you wanted.”

The bug collection aside, the thought of a normal life is nice. No worries, just a simple life. Farming and fishing and maybe selling shrooms. And no fighting.

But…if Louis doesn’t fight, Perrie’s the only one. Just one person, holding back an evil that could destroy the entire land.

He might not know who he is, but he knows that turning his back on his past and on the princess would never sit well with him. “Are there some magic words I have to say to promise I’m sticking with this plot?”

Jade smiles. “No, that’s all you needed to say. Now, I’ll tell you what Bulian forgot to tell you and then tell you what Perrie had to say. Yeah?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“So.” Jade takes another breath. “Bulian told you about how the people of Hyrule found the Guardians and the Divine Beasts from a long time before. What he didn’t tell you is how or why they were even built. Ganon’s been a thorn in the side of Hyrule for as long as anyone can remember. He was always popping up and wreaking havoc, but every time, he was sealed away. At least for a little while. And it was always by two people: a princess who was a descendant of the Goddess, and a warrior hero. Every time Ganon came back, the princess and the hero beat him. But 10,000 years ago, the people of Hyrule decided not to wait around for Ganon to come back, which would mean they’d have to wait around for the hero and the princess. They thought it was a good idea to build the Guardians and the Divine Beasts so they could be ready when Ganon came back. And it worked. Ganon came back, right on schedule, and the princess and the hero worked together with the pilots of the Divine Beasts to seal Ganon away.”

“Oh, so it worked that time. But it didn’t work a hundred years ago, right? King Bulian told me Ganon took control of the Divine Beasts and turned them to his side, and the Guardians, too.”

Jade nods. “That’s basically it, yeah. So are you ready for Princess Perrie’s big message? Listen closely or you might miss it.”

Louis leans closer. “Should I write this down?”

“Free the four Divine Beasts.”

There’s silence for ten long seconds. “Wait, that’s the big message I had to swear on my life to hear?”

“Yup,” Jade says, popping the ‘p.’ “The four Divine Beasts are still under Ganon’s control. So if we take them back, and free the spirits of the Champions who died piloting them, we have a shot at winning. There’s Vah Rudania, piloted by Ed of the Gorons; Vah Ruta, piloted by Gemma of the Zora; Vah Naboris, piloted by Dua of the Gerudo; and Vah Medoh, piloted by Zayn of the Rito.”

Zayn of the Rito. The name strikes an frustratingly familiar but still elusive chord somewhere deep in Louis’ chest, something that none of the other names do to him. He hates that he doesn’t even know _why_ Zayn sounds so important. “Can you tell me more about Zayn?” he ventures.

Jade studies him for a moment, then smirks. “He was a great Rito warrior. The greatest one who ever lived, and maybe the greatest one who ever will. The rest...isn’t my story to tell.”

There’s more to this Zayn character than Jade’s letting on, but Louis won’t push. “Right, so how do I get them back?”

“You’ll have to find each of the races—the Gorons, the Zora, the Gerudo, and the Rito. Their leaders will know more about each Divine Beast. They’ll help you.”

“Will they recognize me?”

Jade shrugs. “I can’t say. I know Queen Anne of the Zora probably will, she’s sharp as a tack. Bebe, though, probably not. She’s the Gerudo chieftainess but she’s only twenty-eight. She would only know of you from stories.”

Louis groans, putting his head in his hands. More information to process and there’s still huge chunks of his memory that are blanks. “Wait, what did you mean before about my Sheikah Slate being half-functional?”

“There should be a way to use it to help rebuild at least some of your memories, but I suck at technology. But my sister will be able to help you. She’s at the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab, in Hateno Village. Any more questions?”

“Actually, yeah, I have a bunch. So uh, I have these Spirit Orb things shoved in my chest somewhere. What the fuck is up with those?”

“Spirit Orbs! Oh, thank Goddess. So they’re not actually _in_ your chest. It’s more...symbolic, really, of the Goddess’s blessing. When you’ve earned four Spirit Orbs, you can find a Goddess Statue and pray to her, and she’ll reward you with strength.”

Louis blinks twice. “With strength. Do I get biceps?”

“No. It’s more of a strength of spirit. You’ll be able to run faster and be more agile, things like that. You’ll feel it, I swear. That’s all I can really say. Speaking of Shrines, you know you can teleport to ones you’ve visited, right?”

“I can do _what_?”

Jade facepalms. “You didn’t know.”

“Obviously not!”

“Take out your Sheikah Slate.”

Louis does. “Yeah, they show up as blue glowy dots.”

“Tap on one, and you’ll warp right to the shrine.”

“What? How? That’s so useful!”

“Really, really old technology, plus a bit of magic, probably. There’s a shrine at the top of the hill, actually, if you go up the hill by the entrance to the village. I’d suggest you visit it so you don’t have to spend days riding all the way back here from Hateno Village. Any more questions?”

“Actually, not yet.”

Jade claps once. “Well, enough chitchat. You’re in too deep to back out now. So good luck! Come back and visit when you get your slate up and running, yeah? I haven’t seen a fully functional Sheikah Slate in so long, I want to know what the new updates are.”

“Promise.” Louis stands up and salutes. Eleanor starts giggling again and inches closer. “Okay, bye!” He bursts out the doors and is halfway down the stairs before he realizes he forgot to ask how to get to Hateno Village.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> those who've played the game will notice i've tweaked some things here and there for the sake of the narrative. and that'll keep happening, but i promise, major aspects won't be changed that much!
> 
> thank you for reading! i post a new chapter every two weeks, so the next update will be out around march 3. 
> 
> come say hi on tumblr at my [main blog](http://maybetheyrefireproof.tumblr.com/) or my [loz sideblog](http://leafviolin.tumblr.com), and check for the most recent updates [right here](http://maybetheyrefireproof.tumblr.com/tagged/fic+updates)!


	3. give me my revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And then suddenly, images and people and voices flood his mind. He drops the slate and falls to his knees, hands pressed over his ears. 
> 
> He _remembers_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter title is from [so long, and thanks for all the booze](https://youtu.be/SIMHiMNUpHs) by all time low.
> 
> a brief content warning for an episode resembling a panic attack early on in the chapter, and some mentions of blood near the end of the chapter.

Before Louis leaves Kakariko Village, he visits the shrine on the hill that Jade had told him about. Inside is a tiny Guardian, much like the one he fought in the very first shrine on the Great Plateau. It wields a fierce-looking battleax that glows blue and emits sparks of energy every so often, but instead of just trying to kill him, it acts as a trainer of sorts, teaching him useful fighting methods. It spits out instructions in a mechanical voice, telling him how to block and dodge, and how if he times his motions correctly, he can parry an enemy’s attack right back at it. Of course, once it’s finished teaching him, it then proceeds to unleash a flurry of attacks that barely give him time to do much blocking or anything. A half hour later, when the back of his tunic is soaked through his sweat and his hair is matted to his temples, the Guardian tells him he’s passed the trial and is free to continue. Louis isn’t sure if he should respond, so he skirts around it to meet with the monk. Ta’loh Naeg is its name, and it tells him that he’s free to come back and spar with the Guardian whenever he wishes. Right. Louis gets out of there as quickly as he can.

He stops at the Goddess Statue in the center of the pond, trying to remember what Jade had told him about praying for strength. Unsure what to do, he drops to one knee in front of the statue and tries to assemble some words that sound like a prayer.

But before he can say anything out loud, the base of the statue glows, and he hears a voice in his head.

_Louis, Hero of Hyrule, you who have conquered the shrines and obtained their Spirit Orbs. Your victories and bravery have demonstrated your courageous heart and have proven you worthy of my blessing. In return, I can amplify your being. Tell me, child, what is it you wish for?_

Louis thinks a moment, then says out loud, “Jade said you can give me strength?”

_You seek strength. I shall grant your request._

A warm beam of light surrounds him, then winks out.

_Go, and bring peace to Hyrule._

Louis stands up once the voice in his head goes quiet. He doesn’t feel any different, but he’s sure he’ll notice once he’s up and about once more.

He stops at an arrow shop called The Curious Quiver to stock up on arrows, and finds that they also sell specially made fire arrows. He buys a bundle from the blushing salesgirl, who keeps making discomfiting innuendos about him “stringing her bow.” He bows out quickly.

His last stop is the general store, where a middle-aged woman with a kind face greets him. “Hi! Are you here for ingredients or recipes?”

“Oh, I’m not much of a cook.”

“Not much of a cook? Boy, you’ll need to be, if you’re going to be traveling out in these parts.” The shopkeeper shakes her head and wraps up some items Louis can’t see. “Daisy’s by the cooking pot outside. Give these to her and she’ll teach you how to cook.”

“Um, thanks?” Confused, Louis takes the bundle and heads outside. True to the man’s word, there’s a small fire under a tree, with a metal cooking pot perched over the flames. A young girl of about thirteen stands beside it, poking at whatever she has cooking with a wooden spoon.

“Hi, uh, Daisy? The woman in the store sent me out here with these for you,” Louis says, offering her the bundle and hoping he’s not coming off creepy.

Daisy studies him for a moment before breaking out into a smile. “Is this the honey I’ve been looking for?” She takes the package from him eagerly, unwrapping it and frowning once she sees what’s inside. “Drat. No honey. Did she say I’d teach you how to cook? I should start charging for my cooking lessons. Just a minute, I’m finishing up my dad’s lunch.” She stirs the pot one last time before grasping the handles and lifting it off the fire. “Specially made so the handles don’t get hot,” she explains upon seeing the shocked expression on his face, then runs off.

He watches curiously as she runs up to one of the guards at Jade’s house and offers him the pot. His face brightens and he takes both the pot and the spoon, leaving his post to eat his lunch in the shade of a nearby tree.

Daisy comes trotting back a few minutes later with another pot. “Okay, let’s start. Helene gave us some good things. So basically, the first thing to know about cooking is that you can’t really go wrong! Yeah, it might taste a little funny, but if there’s vegetables and fruits in it, it’s good for you and that’s what matters. So try anything! But usually, it’ll be good. Let’s see…we have some raw meat, a Fortified Pumpkin, some apples, and some butter. Yay! I’ll teach you two recipes. Are you good at remembering recipes?”

“I’ll try my best,” Louis promises. “So what are we starting with?”

“We’ll start with the meat and the pumpkin. My mum taught me a really simple recipe for it.” Daisy takes the meat and tosses it in the pot, letting it simmer. In the meantime, she hands him a knife and tells him to gut the pumpkin. As he does, she keeps chattering about the cooking her mother taught her. She speaks about her in past tense, though, which Louis picks up on but doesn’t ask about.

He may not be a cook, but the recipes she teaches him are too easy to forget. The meat cooks halfway, then is placed inside the hollow pumpkin to finish cooking and finished off with some salt. The result is a flavorful steak that’s not at all what Louis expects, but is surprisingly tasty. The second is even simpler: a few apples, baked and fried in the butter for a crispy sweet treat.

“You’re a really good cook,” Louis tells her, taking a bite out of the buttered apple and digging a few rupees from his pouch. “Can I give you this, as a thank you? I don’t have much, but.”

Daisy lights up, but shakes her head. “No no no, I like helping people. I was only joking about charging for my cooking lessons.”

“Well…if you’re sure.” Louis polishes off the last of his apple, tossing the core into the pond and standing up. “Thanks again for all your help.”

“Of course! If you ever want more recipes, I’ll be right here. But bring your own ingredients from now on!”

Louis laughs. “I promise.” When she runs off to her father to take the pot back, he slips the rupees into her bag and leaves before she can see him.

Mark and Dan—he’s still not sure who is who—have his horse tethered to the fence around Jade’s house. Ted seems happy as a clam, tail swishing as he munches on some grass.

Louis pats his neck and gets a nicker in response. “Ready to go?” Ted snorts but picks his head up, shifting in place like he’s antsy. “That makes two of us.”

“Heading to Hateno Village?” the guard on the left asks him.

“Yeah. I just go back toward the stable but take the other road, right?”

“You got it.”

“Great. Thanks for watching my horse, by the way.”

“Anything for a friend of Jade’s.”

“Please, travel safely,” the other one says. “The roads are dangerous, even in the daytime.”

“Got it. I didn’t have many problems on the way here, so hopefully it should be the same on the way to Hateno.”

The guards exchange significant looks, but say no more other than goodbye. Louis mounts Ted and he’s off once again.

He barely gets outside of the village before he realizes he probably should have stayed overnight so he wouldn’t be traveling as the sun went down. Oh, well. The sooner he reaches Hateno Village, the sooner he can get his memories back. Besides, he can always find a hollow to sleep in, like he did the night before.

There’s no sign of Shawn on his way back down the mountain. Louis wonders where the tree-man went off to, or where Korok Forest even is.

By the time he reaches the stable again, the sun has started to set and Louis decides he might as well stay at the inn. Calum is still behind the counter, looking bored as ever as he doodles on a blank notebook page. He looks up when Louis approaches.

“Bringing Ted back already?” he asks.

“Uh, no. I was actually looking to stay at the inn.”

“Oh, even better.” Calum pulls out another book, which he flips open to display the price list. “Twenty rupees gets you a standard bed, but sixty’ll get you a luxury down bed. We’ll board Ted for free.”

“Will I have to pay to rent Ted again in the morning?”

“Yeah."

Louis pulls out his money pouch and counts through what he has. “Fuck, I think I only have eighteen.”

“Do you need money?” Steve pops up right next to Louis, making the Hylian jump.

“Goddess, Steve, don’t scare me like that!”

“Sorry.” Steve grins, not sounding sorry in the least. “I heard you’re short on money.”

“Oh, I couldn’t take money from you.”

“I wasn’t going to say that. If you have anything you want to sell, I can buy it,” Steve tells him. “Gemstones, monster parts, herbs, food, anything.”

“Um…” Louis rummages through his pack and comes up with a few apples he’d picked. “What about these?”

Steve nods. “I can take those off your hands. Six apples at two each, so that’ll be twelve rupees. Sound good?”

“Yeah. Wait. I still need ten more. You said you buy monster parts, right? Will you take these?” Louis asks, pulling out some of the Bokoblin horns he’d scavenged from the ones he killed.

“I take those, too. Five at three each is fifteen, so…” Steve counts on his fingers. “Twenty-seven total?”

“It’s a deal.” Louis hands over the apples and the horns, and Steve drops a handful of rupees into his open palm in exchange.

“I’m always looking for cool things to buy,” Steve tells him, “so you can always sell things to me if you’re short on money.”

“Good to know.” With a final goodnight to Steve and Calum, Louis trudges inside to the bed Calum’s assigned to him. The bed next to him is already occupied, by a snoring man who looks about thirty. A collapsed wooden easel leans against the tent wall, and paintbrushes lie carelessly strewn on the floor between their beds. Shrugging, Louis kicks off his shoes and burrows under the covers, looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

It isn’t to be, though. He wakes a few hours later with an unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach that he can’t explain. A half hour of tossing and turning does him no good, so he gets up, eyes still heavy with sleep, and decides to go for a walk and hopefully calm his mind.

When he emerges from the tent, the world looks like it’s on fire.

He rubs his eyes. This can’t be what he’s seeing. But when his vision clears, the sight is the same.

The moon glows a sickly shade of red, similar to the color of the Calamity surrounding Hyrule Castle, and the air is thick with magenta sparks, rising into the sky like embers. The feeling worsens, his stomach twisting as an invisible hand presses down on his chest. He can’t take a breath. Fuck. He runs back inside, collapsing to the floor with a _thud_ that echoes in his ears like a detonating bomb.

“You okay, buddy?”

It’s Calum. Louis nods as the young man drops to a knee beside him to put a comforting hand on his shaking shoulder.

Calum snorts, sounding very much like one of the horses he cares for. “You are not. You never been out during a blood moon before?”

“A blood moon?”

“Yeah. Every few weeks, we get one of those. The moon and the sky turn red right at midnight, and it stays like that for a couple of hours. It’s Calamity Ganon’s doing. All the monsters that are under his control come back to life under the blood moon.”

Louis’ stomach sinks even farther. “So…all the Bokoblins I killed on the way here…”

“Won’t stay dead,” Calum finishes for him. “Yeah. They always come back.”

“What the fuck,” Louis whispers. “What’s the point?”

Calum shrugs. “You gotta do what you gotta do. The only good thing is they always respawn in the same place, so once you know where they are, you can avoid them if you want to.”

“How do you know all this?”

Calum’s expression turns dark. “My great-granddad used to fight in the king’s guard, back when the Champions were alive. He used to go out and fight the same monsters over and over again. My mum said my great grandmother was always talking about how it made no sense, to keep sending soldiers out to fight enemies that would never stay dead. She thought we should just let the Champions deal with it. But my great-granddad said we shouldn’t just wait around and let them terrorize our village. But you know how that ended. We all do. The Champions died and Princess Perrie’s still stuck there, fighting all alone.”

The Champions died. The words, uttered so casually, make Louis feel like he’s just been stabbed with an icicle. It’s his fault. Hyrule is in ruins because of him. Louis swallows thickly, unsure what to say, but Calum keeps talking.

“My grandmother had just had my mum when they were forced out of the village. She went to Hateno Village, where my mum was raised, and then where my sister and I were born. My mum and sister are both still there, but I left as soon as I could. I didn’t understand how they could just move on with their lives like nothing had ever happened. I wanted to avenge my family and I had it in my head that I’d do whatever it took. It was a stupid idea, but you know how it is when you’re fifteen and you think your passion is enough. I left home, and met up with these three other guys my age who’d all left home for their own reasons, and we traveled together for a while. Then about two or three years ago, Luke got hurt real bad in a fight with a Molduga in Gerudo Desert. We thought we were gonna lose him.” Calum pauses. “Ashton thought we went too far that time. Mikey agreed. And by that point I had realized it was pointless to try and keep fighting. It was just like my mum said when I was little. No point fighting what wouldn’t go away. So we hid out in Rito Village while Luke got better, and once he did, we each picked our favorite parts of Hyrule and settled down. So here I am.” Calum gives a brittle laugh. “And here you are, with the same name as the princess’s chosen knight. I feel like my great-granddad is trying to tell me something, but I don’t know what.”

At some point during Calum’s story, Louis’ breathing evened out, and the pressure on his chest abated. His head is clearer, though the guilt of his failures still weigh heavily on his conscience. “He’s telling you it’s not over. Kind of like…this is a second chance.”

Calum gives him a weird look. Outside, the reddish glow has softened. “Yeah, okay. I’ll believe it when the Hero himself rises from the dead and defeats the Calamity. But come on. You should go back to bed.”

How can Louis possibly go back to sleep after that? But Calum’s already guiding him to his feet and back to his bed, and he’s still reeling in the aftermath of the panic so he lets it happen.

Sleep doesn’t come for a long time, and even then, it’s fitful and plagued with dreams of skeletal Bokoblins. But sunrise comes, as it always does, and Calum gently shakes him awake and tells him he’s welcome to use the cooking pot outside to make breakfast.

Cooking. Right. He warms up the buttered apple Daisy made him, wanting something sweet after the unsettling night, and climbs up to the top of a tree to sit and eat it.

It must have rained after he fell asleep. The sun’s golden rays reflect off pools of water that have gathered in the meadows, blinding as they slip over the horizon. He can see Ted already up and about, prancing in the paddock like he’s itching to go on another adventure.

“You almost ready to go?” Calum calls up to him from the base of the tree. Louis nods, swallowing the last bite of his apple. “Okay. I’ll get Ted ready in about five minutes.”

Louis scampers down the tree to look for Steve, but the traveling salesman is nowhere to be found.

“Looking for Steve?” Calum asks, leading Ted around to the front of the stable. “He left early this morning. Said he’s heading out to Akkala.”

“Where’s Akkala?”

“To the northeast. My mate Ashton has his stable out there. You’ll probably meet him at some point, if you ever find yourself up that way.” Calum adjusts the bridle before handing the reins off to Louis. “You’re good to go. Safe travels, if I don’t see you again.”

Louis has a feeling this won’t be the last he’ll hear from Calum, but he says his goodbyes anyway and rides off to the east.

The journey takes him nearly the entire day. The path winds through a field full of inert Guardians that give him the creeps, and then cuts through the remnants of what must have been a military fort. Curious, he slows, stopping to talk to a man sitting next to a cooking pot nearby.

“What is this place?” he asks.

The man looks up from his cooking. “Fort Hateno. Are you a tourist, too?”

“You could say.”

“Man, isn’t it cool? I mean, it’s sad, but it’s still pretty cool.”

“What happened here?” When the man gives him a funny look, Louis tries to cover. “I mean, my mom used to tell me stories about this place but I was really little and I don’t remember them too well,” he lies, sitting down next to the man.

“Well, it’s not a whole lot of a story to tell.” The man waves his arm to indicate the field of dead Guardians Louis had just come through. “They say this is where, a hundred years ago, the Hero of Hyrule made his last stand. Some people say he died, along with the rest of the Champions, but there’s been a rumor going around that he didn’t really die and he just went into a deep sleep, so one day he’ll come back to save us all. Wouldn’t that be cool? I hope I get to meet him if he does wake up.”

“Yeah, that’s…really something,” Louis mutters. Knowing this might be the place he died—almost died—is unsettling, and he doesn’t want to linger here any more than he needs to. “Thanks for the story. I hope you get to meet the hero.”

A few hours later, he can see small buildings dot a hillside in the distance. That must be Hateno. When he pulls out his Sheikah Slate to check, he realizes he’s in uncharted territory. Grand. Fortunately, the tower is hard to miss, but it’s also hard to climb. Thorned vines have curled around the tower, making the path up more difficult. But when he does finally reach the top, he’s greeted with a stunning sunset, the sky washed in pinks and purples and greens. To the south lies the sea, which seems to stretch on forever. And just to the east he can clearly see his destination. He’s close.

The slate pops back out of the pedestal, now containing this section of the map. Thank Goddess. He paraglides back down to the ground, calls Ted, and looks forward to collapsing into a bed.

He can’t collapse into a bed. The inn is full, and he’s not about to go door to door asking strangers if they’ll let him stay the night. Dejected, he’s resigned himself to sleeping in the forest just outside the village when he notices a bridge leading to one lonely looking house next to a pond. It’s unfurnished and in disrepair, but it’s empty so he doesn’t think anyone will mind if he sleeps there for just one night. He leaves Ted outside to graze by the pond and curls up under the stairs to fall asleep.

In the morning, Louis wakes to the sound of sledgehammers hitting stone. “Can’t a man get some sleep?” he asks no one, trudging outside to investigate the source of the noise.

Outside, he finds two men sitting under the shade of an apple tree while the third whacks at the stone walls of the house.

“What in the fucking world is going on?”

The man with the sledgehammer drops it in surprise. “Where did you come from?”

“I was sleeping in there.” Louis rubs his eyes. “Sorry, is this your house? I just needed a place to sleep and the inn was full.

One of the men under the tree stands up, adjusting the pink headband on his head. “So you think you can just waltz into any old empty house and sleep in it?” He laughs before Louis can say anything. “Kidding! No one’s lived here for a hundred years.”

“What happened to it?”

“The owner left to fight in the king’s guard,” says the one with the sledgehammer. “And then he never came back. We figured by now there’s no way he’s still around, so…”

“It’s got to go,” Pink Headband finishes. “Oh! I never introduced myself. How silly of me. I’m Dermot, and these two fine workers are Jon and Sandy.”

“I’m Sandy,” offers the one with the sledgehammer.

Louis takes a few steps back, squinting at the house. In the daylight, it looks…almost familiar. He has to be the owner who left a hundred years ago. He can’t explain why, but he just knows it.

The sign next to the lintel is faded and worn, but he can just barely make out the letters. “Look,” he says, waving Dermot over. “You can still read the sign.”

Dermot gets in close to read it, his nose almost touching the wood. “‘Louis.’ Huh. Wait, you think that’s the princess’s knight?”

“It’s not a very common name,” Jon chimes in.

“It’s me,” Louis says, voice soft. “This…was my house.”

Dermot laughs. “You? No way. He died a hundred years ago.”

“No, I didn’t. I don’t know how to explain it. But I’m still here. Look, I have the Sheikah Slate,” Louis adds, pulling the device from its pouch and showing Dermot.

Sandy comes over to gawk at it. “Oh, shit. It is him. The princess’s knight was the only one to carry one of these, aside from the princess herself.”

Dermot looks at Louis, awe coloring his expression. “Well, I’ll be. I never thought I’d see this day. I suppose you’ll want your house back, then?”

“I don’t have much money, but I can buy it back when I come up with enough.”

Dermot waves a hand. “No, no, don’t be silly. You’re not paying for a house you already own. In fact, let us do you a favor. Do you have business in Hateno Village?”

“Yeah, I’m supposed to meet Jesy at the tech lab.”

“Perfect. Give us the rest of the day, and we’ll rebuild your furniture.”

“Oh—you don’t have to do that. Just having my house back is enough,” Louis protests, overcome with gratitude.

“It’s the least we can do for the hero.”

For the hero. Louis doesn’t feel like much of one right now. Between Dermot, Calum, and the man at Fort Hateno, it seems Louis has a lot to live up to if he’s the one they’re all looking to. “Thank you,” is all he can say. “I’ll pay you back for it someday, I swear.”

“Defeating the Calamity would be a good place to start,” Sandy tells him with a grin.

Louis salutes. “I’ll do my best. How do I get to the tech lab?”

“Just keep going on the path up the hill. You can’t miss it,” Jon says. “See you tonight!”

“Bye!” Dermot sings, waving after Louis as he goes.

This town is lively, with shopkeepers hawking their wares, children playing in the meadows, and farmers hard at work in their fields. Like Kakariko, it seems to have escaped much of the destruction from the Calamity. Though the path isn’t long, it is steep, enough that Louis is embarrassingly short of breath when he finally does reach the top.

In front of him is a tall, cylindrical building that could be mistaken for a windmill at first glance. Outside, a pyre burns with a blue flame. This must be it. He pushes the door open.

A very small girl stands on top of a chair, with red glasses and a giant bow in her hair. She’s chattering away to a young woman with curly hair and a stack of books in her arms.

The curly-haired girl notices him first and almost drops the books. “You’re here!”

“Who’s here?” Bow Girl turns to look at Louis. “Oh, it’s you!”

“It’s me.” Louis clears his throat. “I’m here to see Jesy?”

“That would be meeeeee,” Bow Girl says, dragging out the ‘e.’ “Jade told me you were coming. And she said you didn’t remember her! But you remember me, right? Me and Leigh-Anne?”

Louis shakes his head slowly.

Jesy mumbles something, swiping a notepad off the table behind her and scribbling furiously. “Subject…does not…remember…best friends…after…sleep. Right then. I am sorry about that. I had no idea it would wipe your memory so. I was only trying to ease the pain from your injuries and heal you while you slept, but I guess my calculations were off somewhere. So! Let me see your Sheikah Slate. I think some of the runes might have gotten lost, too.”

Louis hands the device over and watches curiously as she taps at it. “Jade said you could use it to help restore some of my memories?”

“Incorrect,” Jesy says.

Louis’ heart sinks. “So…I’ll never regain my memories?”

“Incorrect,” she says again. “ _I_ can’t use it to restore your memories, but _you_ can. You see, back when you and Princess Perrie were traveling together, you could use this to make pictures of places you went. If I’m correct, there should still be some photographs on there. Aha!”

She holds the slate out to him. A new picture-taking function is available to him, which she explains to him is called a camera. She swipes to the left, and several pictures come up that hadn’t been there before. “Do you see these? Those are photographs Perrie took with the slate. My hunch is that if you go to one of these places, you might be able to remember some things. It’s not a perfect solution, but it might help a little bit.”

“Can I see?” Leigh-Anne takes the slate from Louis, scrolling through the pictures. “Ah, yes. These are definitely Princess Perrie’s pictures. By the way, Louis, if there’s a picture you would like to have a physical version of, bring the slate to me. I can render it on a canvas like a painting.”

“You can do that?” Louis gasps. “That’s incredible!”

“Sheikah technology is a beautiful thing,” Jesy says with a sigh. “I don’t know how Jade lives without it. Anyway, you should be getting back to her. Tell her I fixed your slate. She might know where some of these places are, too.”

“Thanks so much.”

“And don’t forget to come back if you want your pictures!” Leigh-Anne reminds him.

“Will do. Actually, I can’t leave yet. Dermot’s working on my house. He said to come back in the evening and he’ll have all my stuff ready.”

“Well, while you’re here, why don’t I show you some things you can do with the camera?” Leigh-Anne offers. The photography lesson ends up taking all day, half because his hands are shaky and half because Leigh-Anne decides fifteen minutes in that it’s her personal mission to teach him how to take the best possible pictures. They go outside so she can teach him about lighting, they get on their knees to take close-up pictures of lizards and shrooms, and she even shows him the slate’s ability to reverse the camera so he can take a picture of himself. It’s called a selfie, she tells him.

By the time they’re done, the sun has started to sink behind the mountains, so they head back inside to find Jesy tinkering with a pile of ancient parts. “Finished already?” she asks, looking up from her work. “You know, if you ever find yourself out in the Akkala region, you should find Dan and Phil.”

“Dan and Phil?”

“My subordinates,” she tells him, planting her hands firmly on her hips. “There, I said it. And you can tell them I called them my subordinates, too. They used to work under me a long time ago. They’ll definitely remember you. Very smart guys, but really weird. They hardly leave the lab.”

“Wait, there are more of these places?” Louis gestures to the space he’s standing in. “How many?”

“Just these two. While I specialize in Sheikah Slate technology, they ended up focusing more on Guardian technology and weaponry. And some other weird geeky stuff that I never understood. But you should definitely go visit them.” She takes his slate and plants a marker in an uncharted section of the map, telling him that’s where they’re located. Louis promises he’ll find his way to them eventually, before thanking both Jesy and Leigh-Anne again and heading back toward his old house.

He finds Dermot, Sandy, and Jon around the campfire, laughing and singing songs. Jon is roasting apples on a stick.

“Hey, the hero’s back!” Dermot announces. “Feel free to go on in and check the place out.”

Louis will, once he finishes gawking over the exterior. They’ve put a door on, planted flowers in the front, and put a fence around the yard, where Ted is happily munching on grass. His saddle and bridle are hanging up in an open shed on the side of the house. There’s even a new sign declaring the house as Louis’. The old one is still up; Louis touches his fingertips to it with something like reverence before going inside.

The single room on the first floor is taken up by a dining table, plates and table linens set out like people are expected for dinner. In the corner is a small basin and countertop for cooking, and velvet-backed display mounts hang on the walls. Upstairs, the loft now has a bed and a desk, and there’s even a daffodil in a vase on a small table next to the bed.

It’s the closest thing he’ll have to a home.

He runs back outside and, without thinking, tackles Dermot into a fierce hug.

“Whoa!” Dermot laughs, patting Louis on the back. “You like it it that much?”

“Sorry, sorry. I don’t really do that,” Louis says sheepishly. “It just reminded me of simpler times.”

“Simpler times indeed,” Dermot agrees. “But think of it this way. The simpler times give you a reason to fight.”

The four of them sit outside, chatting idly and taking turns roasting apples, until the moon is high in the sky and the night wind has turned cold. Dermot, Jon, and Sandy take their leave and Louis retreats into his house to sleep.

The bed is soft, the blankets are warm, and he falls asleep quickly.

He wakes with the sun and immediately goes outside to check on Ted. He’s loath to leave Ted here, but he also doesn’t want to spend a day and a half riding back when he could travel instantly like Jade told him. “You’ll be okay here, won’t you?” he asks the horse. Ted whinnies, and he takes that as a yes. He can always come right back, after all.

Eager to try traveling with the Sheikah Slate, he taps on the shrine near Kakariko Village. Instantly, a blue glow surrounds him, long filaments of light wrapping around his body. “What?” he whispers to himself, closing his eyes and hoping for the best. When he opens them next, he’s standing at the Kakariko Village shrine. “Holy fucking Hylia, it worked,” he mutters in disbelief, before running down the hill to Jade’s.

He bursts through the door, waving the slate in the air, startling both Jade and Eleanor. “It works!”

“Oh!” Jade claps excitedly. “I want to see, I want to see.” Her expression changes as she looks through the photos, cycling from happy to somber to nostalgic. “Ah...so the princess’s photographs are still there. And let me guess, Jesy said to try going to the places in the pictures to see if you remember anything?”

“Yeah. She said you might know where some of the places are."

“I know a few. This one, for example, is at the bridge leading into the princess’s study in Hyrule Castle. But the rest…well, it’s been a long time since I left the village. You’d have to ask someone well-traveled.”

“I know someone who might be able to help,” Eleanor pipes up. “There’s a painter named Nick who comes by the village every so often. He’s been everywhere. He might know some of the places.”

“Is he here now?” Louis asks.

Eleanor nods. “By the Goddess statue in the pond.”

“Louis, before you go,” Jade says. “if you do manage to recover a memory by going to any of those places, come back and let me know.”

Louis promises he will. He finds Nick at the pond just like Eleanor said, painting with an easel, and recognizes him as the man in the bed next to him at Calum’s stable.

“Hang on,” Nick says before Louis gets a single word out. He swipes the brush across the canvas before turning it around. “Tah dah!”

It’s an elementary depiction of Jade’s house that looks like a five-year-old painted it. Maybe that’s what art is these days. Louis certainly isn’t one to judge. “It’s…something,” he says.

Nick beams. “Thank you! I think it’s some of my best work. Did you have a question about my art?”

“Actually, I heard you might be able to help me. I’m trying to find these places,” Louis explains, showing Nick the pictures on his Sheikah Slate, “and Eleanor said you might know some of them.”

Nick swipes through the photos, nodding slightly. “Oh, yeah, I know all these places. This one’s the closest.” He stops on a photo of a stone archway above a cobblestone road. In the distance, a massive mountain rises, the peak disappearing into the clouds above. “Lanayru Road, West Gate. No, sorry, that’s the East Gate. You know how to get there?”

“Obviously not.”

“If you head up the path by the shrine, follow it through the forest until it splits. Head right and go under the first archway. You’ll pass through the Lanayru Ruins. This gate, the one in the picture, is at the end of the road. It shouldn’t take you long. Maybe an hour at the most.” Nick hands the slate back. “Why are you headed out that way? Planning to go up Mount Lanayru?”

Louis shakes his head. “No, Jade told me to.”

“Right, right.” Nick turns his attention back to his canvas, tilting his head as he studies it. “I think this needs some more drama, don’t you?”

It’s clear Nick is done being helpful, so Louis just agrees that yes, it definitely needs more drama, and slips away.

The path through the forest is quiet, shaded by the trees and almost overgrown. People must not come through this way much anymore. When the forest ends, steep cliffs rise on both sides of the road, narrowing the path even further. Save for the occasional cry of a bird or squeak of a fox, it’s still oddly silent. Louis isn’t sure how he feels about that. He takes a right when the road forks like Nick told him to, and immediately sees the first gate. He pulls out the Sheikah Slate just to make sure this isn’t the one. There’s no mountain to be seen, so he presses on.

The dirt path turns into cobblestones, which then turns into cracked flat stones. Cliffs still border the left side of the road, but the right, he can now see a stream of some kind.

His jaw drops.

The stream opens up to a lake, at the far end of which is a thundering waterfall. And all around the lake are ruins, mossy and crumbling. _What used to be here?_ he wonders, peering at the precisely carved stone walls. _And when did this happen?_ Hopelessness lingers over the ruins, like it was accepted long ago that this place will never be rebuilt. A small part of him hopes it’s been like this for ages, centuries even, but the rest of him just knows.

He can’t stay and look and be sad. He’s got a job to do now, and if he does it right, he can try to make up for all the destruction that happened a hundred years ago. With a deep breath, he keeps going. A few Bokoblins have set up camp in the ruins and come out to attack him, but he slays them all easily. The gate is in his sights now.

He has no idea what to expect, as he approaches the archway with timid steps and the Sheikah Slate in his hands. He glances from the picture of the sight in front of him. It’s definitely the place, but… Something tugs at his mind, nagging him, almost. Then he thinks he remembers Princess Perrie’s voice. Her face flashes in his mind for less than a second, too fleeting to remember properly.

And then suddenly, images and people and voices flood his mind. He drops the slate and falls to his knees, hands pressed over his ears.

He _remembers_.

 

_Louis walks behind the princess as they pass through the gate. She walks with her shoulders hunched, like she’s trying to curl in on herself and disappear._

_Just beyond the gate, a strange assortment of people wait for them. There’s a hulking humanoid man the size of a boulder with flaming red hair and a scruffy beard; a tall, muscular woman wearing a golden chestplate; a girl who looks like she has a pink dolphin on her head; and a bird-man with jet-black feathers who has his wings crossed. All four of them have a sky-blue cloth somewhere on their person: the bird-man wears it as a scarf, the tall woman wears it as a skirt, and the other two have theirs draped over their shoulders like sashes._

_“Princess Perrie!” the giant boulder-sized man exclaims. “How did it go?”_

_“Ed, give her a moment,” the dolphin-girl chides. “Perrie, you look a bit…poorly.”_

_Perrie swallows. “I’m fine,” she says quietly. “It…it didn’t work.”_

_The bird-man frowns. “You didn’t feel anything at all?”_

_“No, nothing at all, Zayn,” Perrie bites back, sounding irritated. Like they’ve had this argument before a thousand times. “I tried my best, but nothing happened.”_

_“Then let’s not harp on it,” the tall woman says, shooting the bird man—Zayn—a sharp look. “No one’s saying you haven’t tried, Princess. But it’s not your fault.”_

_“That’s very kind of you to say, Dua,” Perrie says. “I just feel so useless. Here you all are, you’re the best warriors from every corner of Hyrule and—and all I do is sit in my study and read and I still can’t do anything!”_

_“That’s not true,” the dolphin-girl says. “You’ve put just as much work in as the rest of us.”_

_“Gemma, you don’t have to lie.” Perrie manages a watery smile._

_“You have a role to play in this, just like all of us do,” Dua tells her. “We might not know exactly what it is right now, but you’ll find it. I know you will.”_

_Louis still hasn’t said anything. What’s the point? He’s no good at comfort, especially where the princess is concerned. He catches Zayn’s eye, and lets Zayn pull him off to the side._

_“Do you really think she can do it?” Zayn murmurs._

_Louis shrugs. “She’s been trying.”_

_“Trying won’t seal Ganon away.”_

_“What do you expect her to do? Her father’s no help at all,” Louis shoots back. “She’s a descendant of the Goddess. Which means her power_ has _to awaken. Right?”_

_“Naïve, the both of you,” Zayn mutters. “Now listen. I’m still not keen on you being all alone in that castle when we launch the attack.”_

_“Aw, did you want to be in there with me?” Louis teases, earning himself a light whack in the head._

_“No, you insufferable twit. I just don’t think it’s a good idea to send such an unqualified warrior in while the rest of us are so far away. After all, I am—”_

_“The most skilled archer of all the Rito,” Louis interrupts. “I know. We all know. You’ve said it a million times. You know, you could just say you’re worried about me.”_

_“That would be a lie.”_

_Suddenly, a terrible roar splits the air, shaking the ground they’re all standing on. Louis tries to catch Perrie as she stumbles, but her weight throws him off balance and into Zayn’s wings._

_“Be careful,” Zayn scolds them with a scowl, before taking off into the sky to investigate the source of the chaos._

_“It’s here,” Perrie whispers, getting shakily to her feet. “Ganon’s awake.”_

_“But where?” Ed asks._

_Zayn lands with an angry_ thump _. “The castle. He’s coming from inside the castle.”_

_Everyone gasps. “How?” Gemma asks in shock._

_“Your guess is as good as mine,” Louis mumbles._

_“Well, considering your guess would hardly—”_

_Dua snaps her fingers, cutting Zayn off. “That’s our signal. We’re launching the attack_ now _. Ed, get to Vah Rudania. Gemma, to Vah Ruta. Zayn, stop bickering with Louis for one minute and get to Vah Medoh. Louis,” she goes on, ignoring the fact that the tips of Louis’ ears have turned bright red, “go to the castle. We’ll help as much as we can, but in the end, it’s got to be you.”_

_Louis nods, resolute. The time has come. Gemma and Dua take off at a run, Ed lumbering behind._

_“We should get you to safety,” Zayn says to Perrie._

_“No! I know I’ve been useless this whole time, but there must be something I can do now!” Perrie insists._

_“Stay with me, then,” Louis decides._

_“You’re going to bring the princess into the heart of the Calamity?” Zayn shakes his head. “That’s just—”_

_“I know what you’re about to say. Don’t say it,” Louis interrupts before turning back to the princess. “Stay with me on the way to the castle. I’ll protect you. And who knows? Maybe…maybe your sealing power was just waiting for the moment when it’s needed the most.”_

_“Goddess, I hope you’re right,” Perrie mutters. “Zayn, you should go, too.”_

_“I will.” Zayn meets Louis’ eyes for a moment; neither of them say a word. “Good luck, then. To both of you.” With that, he launches himself into the sky and soars away._

_“Come on.” Louis takes Perrie’s hand. “Let’s go take back the castle.”_

 

Louis’ eyes fly open and he realizes he’s breathing heavily. He moves to a sitting position, trying to absorb all he just saw. Everything he’s learned from Jade makes a little more sense now. Gemma, Ed, Dua, and Zayn were the other Champions. He shivers when it hits him that that was the last time he saw any of them. There wasn’t even a real goodbye.

He has to get back and tell Jade. With one last look back at the gate, he turns on his heel and walks back the way he came. This time, he’s not alone on the path.

Up ahead he can see a young woman, fair-haired and willowy, who’s waving at him with a friendly expression. “Hi!” she calls to him. “It’s so nice to see another person out here!”

“Could say the same,” Louis says with a tentative smile as he looks her over. No bag, no wares, no horse. No weapons that he can see, either. “Are you headed up the mountain?”

“Nope. I was actually looking for someone just like you! You look like someone who knows how to fight. Why don’t you join the Yiga Clan?”

“The what clan?”

“The Yiga Clan!” She pastes a smile on her face and clears her throat like she’s a schoolgirl about to recite a lesson. “We’re a clique of highly skilled traveling warriors all working toward a common goal. And we have the awesomest leader. She makes banana cookies!”

“Um...I’m going to pass, but I appreciate the offer.” Something about her seems off and makes him uneasy. He just hopes she’ll accept a ‘no’ and let him continue on his way.

Her expression clouds. “Then _die_!” she screeches, all traces of the chipper tone gone, and winks out of sight in a puff of red smoke.

“What the—fuck!” Louis barely has time to draw his sword when she appears right next to him, slashing at his left arm with a vicious-looking curved blade. He grunts in pain as the blade slices through his tunic, leaving a deep gash in his upper arm. “Okay, fuck this.” He draws his sword and hefts his shield, trying to anticipate the next attack.

He hears a demonic laugh behind him and turns just in time to see her rushing at him, blade held out. He dodges at the last second, jabbing out with his sword.

It’s a lucky hit that catches her in the leg. She falls to the ground, howling in pain, and Louis takes that opportunity to warp the fuck out of there.

He rematerializes at the shrine by Kakariko Village, blood soaking through the sleeve of his tunic,  and runs to Jade’s house.

“Jade!” he yells. “The memory thing worked and someone tried to kill me!”

Jade looks at him, startled, and then to his bloody tunic.

“Ah...those Yiga bastards,” she says with a deep sigh. “I was hoping they wouldn't know you were awake. Well, not so soon."

"She tried to kill me!" Louis rolls up the sleeve of his tunic to show Jade the deep cut on his left bicep. “Wait, how did you know it was the Yiga Clan?”

“I’d recognize the cuts from their blades anywhere,” she says darkly "Eleanor, if we have any elixirs left, could you get one for Louis, please? Thanks, love." Eleanor nods and scurries upstairs.

Louis sits on the floor in front of Jade. "So what _is_ the Yiga Clan?"

"You remember the other day, when I told you about how 10,000 years ago, the Sheikah built the Divine Beasts and the Guardians to take down Calamity Ganon?"

Louis nods.

"Yeah...not everyone was crazy about it. At first, everyone praised our technology, calling it the technology of the Goddesses. But then some people started to fear it, thinking it was more of a threat than a help. People fear what they don't understand," Jade tells him with a shrug. "We became outcasts. Most of us decided it was easiest to stop pursuing the science and lead simpler lives. There are villages like this one all over Hyrule, where you'll find pockets of us farming and fishing. But one Sheikah was particularly vocal about not going into exile. Her name was Taylor."

"Oh, Goddess."

"She was...dramatic, to say the least. She hated the Hylians, the royal family especially. And to be honest, I can understand why. After all the help we gave, they pretty much turned around and said 'fuck you.' But like I said, most of us understood that giving it up was the best idea. We got over it. Taylor never did. She basically decided that if she was going to be feared, she might as well be feared for a reason. She gathered a clique of about twenty people from her village, and they all made it their mission to get rid of everyone who opposed Ganon. And one night, they all disappeared, but not without leaving a lovely parting message. When the people of her village woke up, they saw the message carved into the rocks, burned into the fields, even in blood on the walls of their abandoned houses: 'LOOK WHAT YOU MADE US DO.'"

Louis has to snort at that. How childish. "Nobody _made_ them do anything."

"You're telling me. But they believed it, and they genuinely believe their best revenge is by killing anyone who stands in Ganon's way."

"And you're telling me these people are still mad about it after 10,000 years?”

Jade nodded, huffing. "Talk about holding a grudge. But yeah, they're still mad. And the clan, as you know, was called the Yiga, and they're still thriving."

"How many are there now?"

"Hard to say. They're very secretive about their numbers, and even their identities. You saw the mask they wore. You know, they could have at least been a little creative about their symbol. It’s literally just the Sheikah Eye upside down. Oh," she adds, “and do you want to know something else? When someone joins the clan, they take her name. They all call themselves Taylor.”

“You’re joking.” Louis laughs in disbelief. “This sounds like a cult.”

“They are. But,” Jade warns him, “as ridiculous as they are, they’re still dangerous. Please be safe when you’re traveling. Ah, here we are.”

Eleanor runs back downstairs, a small glass bottle in her hand. “There’s one left.”

“Oh, then we’ll have to make more later. Thank you, love.” Jade tosses the bottle to Louis without warning, who bobbles it for a second before finally catching it. “Drink that. It’ll heal you up in a few minutes.”

Louis uncorks the bottle and sniffs the weird purple liquid, recoiling at the acrid smell. “What the fuck is in this?”

“Do you want to keep bleeding all over your clothes?”

Louis makes a face, but pinches his nose and downs the liquid anyway. It doesn’t taste as bad as it smells—there’s a bitter aftertaste that lingers on the back of his tongue, but it’s not absolutely horrendous.

“Now,” Jade continues once he’s choked down the elixir, “tell me about what you remember.”

Louis does his best to recount the memory from start to finish. “That was the last time I saw them, wasn’t it?” he asks softly.

Jade nods sympathetically. “You may see or speak with their spirits when you enter the Divine Beasts, but yes. That was the last time.”

Louis thinks back to the odd conversation he’d had with Zayn. “You said that what happened with Zayn wasn’t your story to tell. Is it because of what happened in the memory?”

“Partly.” Jade presses her lips together in a small smile but says no more on the topic. “I have something for you.” She points to a small chest in the corner by the window. Had that been there the whole time? “I’ve been holding onto it for you. Perrie’s wishes, you know.”

Louis opens the chest slowly, lifting the lid to reveal a blue tunic, edged with elegant white embroidered patterns. It looks just like the blue cloth everyone wore in the memory. “What is this?”

“This is the Champion’s Tunic, Louis. Only those who were chosen to fight as Champions could wear this cloth. You chose to have it made into this,” Jade explains as Louis unfolds it and holds it up to his body. “The embroidery is laced with crushed diamonds for extra protection. If you want to go upstairs and try it on, you’re welcome to.”

Louis does just that, partly out of excitement and partly because he doesn’t fancy wearing the bloody tunic.

When he comes back downstairs, Jade lets out a cooing sound. “You look so heroic.”

He doesn’t feel any more heroic than before, but he smiles anyway. “So the next step is…the Divine Beasts, right?”

“Right. The closest one to here is Vah Ruta, which is in Zora’s Domain just to the north of here. Find Prince Harry—he’ll help you. I’ve heard that he’s been waiting at the bridge near the Domain almost every day for months, ever since it was rumored that you were still alive.”

“Goddess. That’s commitment.”

“He’s a gentle soul and a good prince, but some of the queen’s advisors mock him for his optimism. He believes you’re the one that will free Vah Ruta and save them, but the rest of the advisors won’t be so easily convinced.” Jade sighs. “Not to put even more pressure on you, but…you’re his last hope, even if the Domain won’t admit it. He’s got a lot on the line, personally.”

“Because if I fuck up then he’ll look like a weak prince?”

“You’re not wrong, but that’s not why.” Jade’s smile is back, but this time it’s wan and sad. “The Zora Champion Gemma was his sister.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE 20 march:
> 
> sorry i haven't been posting as scheduled! i got busy with st. patrick's day weekend, and then i'm working on a fic for the big bang that's due this weekend soooo i'm putting off the next chapter again. i'm so sorry! it is in progress though and will go up once the big bang fic is done!
> 
> ~
> 
> EDITED:
> 
> a few small announcements before i move on to my usual end note.
> 
> 1\. you may notice i started a series, which means y'all aren't free of this verse just yet! which leads me to my next announcement...  
> 2\. about that long story that calum told louis early in the chapter...i couldn't stop thinking about it so i decided to write a prequel focusing on calum and the rest of the 5sos boys. it's emma's fault. that will be up the weekend of march 10-11. i'm working on it now, it'll be much shorter (probably under 10k) and will go up next weekend instead of the usual chapter for this.  
> 3\. and then the week after, march 17-18, will be chapter 4/meeting harry. i am trying to get on a weekly posting schedule for this, woo!
> 
> whew, now that that's out of the way, as always, thank you for reading! please let me know what you think down in the comments, or on tumblr on my [main blog](http://maybetheyrefireproof.tumblr.com) or [legend of zelda sideblog](http://leafviolin.tumblr.com), and check for updates [right here](http://maybetheyrefireproof.tumblr.com/tagged/fic+updates)!


	4. like the rain to the sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry lights up. “Mount me!”
> 
> “Excuse me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS SO LATE I'M SO SORRY. BUT LOUIS MEETS HARRY SO THAT'S GOOD, RIGHT?
> 
> chapter title is from [heaven](https://youtu.be/lnhRh8NujI8) by troye sivan

Well, fuck. Louis wouldn’t be surprised if Harry hated his guts. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Jade asks, reclining in her seat.

“He probably hates me.”

“He’s been waiting for you.”

“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t hate me. I mean, his sister literally died because I fucked up.”

Jade shakes her head. “Some of the advisors think it’s your fault, but Harry doesn’t. If he did, he wouldn’t be waiting at the bridge for you. Can I see your Sheikah Slate?”

Louis hands it over and watches as Jade taps at the screen. “What are you doing?”

“Marking the bridge on your map.” Jade hands it back. Louis can see a new glowing dot to the north, in uncharted territory. She’s also drawn what looks like a route. “It’s a bit of a trip, but you should make it within a day, at the most. The quickest way I’d say is to head through the forest, toward Lanayru Road. You remember how you got there?”

“I lost my memory, but I can still form new ones,” Louis deadpanned.

“Right, right, I’m just making sure. Anyway, you’ll get to the fork and you’ll see the gate to Lanayru Road to the right. Head to the left and take that path all the way to the end. It’ll open up to Rabia Plain, which you have on your map. Go the the left a bit, and you should see Lanayru Tower right in front of you. Head over to it, climb it, and from the top, the bridge will be close enough to paraglide down to. Just be careful. Now that the Yiga Clan definitely knows you’re alive, their attacks will probably increase. Be wary of the people you meet on your way. And that’s not counting the monsters that you’ll see along the way.”

Louis slips the slate back into it pouch. “Is there anything I should know when I see Harry? Like, maybe not bring up his dead sister?”

Jade laughs at that. “Just know that he can be...a lot, at first.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“I wouldn’t send you to him if I thought he hated you,” she assures him. “In fact, he’s sort of handsome.”

“He’s half-fish.”

“You’ll see.”

“I’ve been awake for three damn days and you’re already trying to set me up?”

“Alright, now you’re just stalling. Get a move on.”

“Fine, fine. Should I come back and see you once I’m done?”

“Yes. I want to hear all the gossip about the prince.”

“Jade!”

She just waves at him. “Good luck!”

Louis runs out as quickly as he can.

As he reaches the fork in the path, he realizes he should have spent the night in the village and waited till morning before setting off. The sunset paints the cliffs surrounding him in shades of gold, which looks beautiful but means darkness is eminent. Grumbling nonsense to himself, he looks at his slate. Could he make it before the skeleton monsters come out?

He sucks up his pride and trudges back to Kakariko Village. He doesn’t go back to Jade’s, though, instead opting to stay at the inn in town.

The innkeeper is a cordial middle-aged woman who says she’s Dan’s cousin and gives him a warm bed in the back of the inn. When he asks how much he owes her, she waves his questions away.

“No, no fee for you,” she insists despite his protests. “Anything I can do to help the Champion is payment enough.”

Everyone in this village is way too nice, he decides as he tucks himself in. 

He leaves in the morning as soon as the sun rises, eager to get a head start on the journey. Following Jade’s directions, he reaches Rabia Plain before midday, and sure enough, Lanayru Tower looms in the distance. Galvanized, he breaks into a run till he reaches the edge of the plain.

Just in front of him is the tower, but below is a river leading into a marshy wetland dotted with—giant skeletons? Huge, rib-like bones erupt from the ground in the wetlands, and there’s even a ring of them around the tower. He’d guess they were established as defensive structures by people who lived down there, but he can’t see any other signs of civilization: no houses, no farms, no pastures. It looks like a graveyard for behemoths. He shivers and pulls out his paraglider, eager to reach the tower as quickly as he can so he can hurry up and get to the bridge. And with a deep breath, he jumps.

He isn’t sure if he’ll ever get used to the sensation of gliding with this contraption, of stepping off a cliff and feeling his stomach drop to his feet as the wind whips past his face. He glides over the wetlands, landing on a rocky outcrop on the other side of the river. 

The path up to the tower is calm for the first twenty seconds. The moment he climbs the cliffs and finds the path, three blue Bokoblins jump out at him from behind a rock. Sighing, he draws his sword just as it begins to rain.

Four groups of the little monsters accost him before he finally reaches the base of the tower. At this point, the attacks are less scary than they are annoying. Not only do they slow him down and tire him out, but Calum’s warning from the other day sits at the back of his mind, reminding him that the monsters he killed won’t stay dead.

At the top of the tower, by the platform, is a shivering fish-human figure. A tail sticks out from the back of their head, and delicate fin-like appendages hang from their arms and hips.

“Um, hi?” Louis asks.

The fish-person turns around. “Oh, a Hylian!” she exclaims. “You—are a Hylian, aren’t you?”

“Last time I checked.”

She claps, hopping from one foot to the other. “Prince Harry will be so happy! He’s waiting for you down at the bridge!” She points to somewhere on the ground. Louis can see the now-familiar orange glow of a shrine near the bridge. “Please go and see him! He’ll be so excited!”

“Will do. Just a second.” Louis presses the Sheikah Slate to the pedestal, making sure the map for the region shows up on the screen before whipping out his paraglider and jumping off the edge. 

He glides down to the shrine, ducking inside partly so he has a warp point and partly to get out of the rain. Once he’s solved the puzzle—easy, all he has to do is beat up a tiny Guardian—and watched the monk shrivel up, he heads back outside, hoping the rain might have let up. Instead, it’s gotten worse, soaking through his clothes and weighing down his cloth bag. Ugh. He walks over to the bridge, holding his shield over his head. Where’s Prince Harry? 

“Hello, my friend!” a very cheery voice booms from somewhere above him. Louis squints as he looks skyward, but sees no one. “Up here! Above you!”

“It’s raining and I can’t see!” Louis yells back to no one. “Are you on the tower?”

“I am! I’ve been told I’m hard to miss!”

Well, now that he says it, Louis feels dumb. He still can’t see all that well, but he sees a figure in red who has a rather shark-like face. “I can’t get up there!”

“Oh! Yes, I forgot. I’ll come down!”

Suddenly, there’s a flash of red, and the figure comes hurtling towards the ground. Toward him. Louis gives an undignified screech and backs away.

The shark-man curls into a ball, soaring through the air, and lands with a heavy  _ thump _ —only to slip on a patch of wet grass and fall flat on his face in the mud.

“...Oops.”

“Hi,” Louis says, taking another wary step back. “Who are you?” He knows Prince Harry is supposed to be waiting for him here, but this shark-man looks and acts nothing like a prince.

The shark-man looks up, the tail on the back of his head wagging excitedly like a dog’s, and scrambles to his feet. He towers over Louis, easily twice his height, and when he smiles, Louis can see two rows of teeth. “Good day to you as well!” the shark-man exclaims, throwing his arms out. “I’m Prince Harry of the Zora. And you must be a Hylian, yes? What’s your name?”

Perhaps Louis should have guessed the shark-man’s status based on the amount of silver and precious stones he has on. His sword belt, bracers, and neck jewelry are all crafted from elaborately wrought silver and embedded with luminescent blue-green gems. “I’m Louis.”

Harry lights up. “You’re Louis! You’ve arrived at last! My friend, you have no idea what your arrival means to us!”

Goddess. How enthusiastic can one guy be? “Um, what?” Louis asks eloquently. 

“I’ve been waiting for you, Louis! We all have! You see,” Harry goes on, dropping to one knee and putting a giant hand on Louis’ shoulder, “I’ve been watching you since you awoke. You’re the Hero of Hyrule! I know you’re a fierce warrior, and a great man, and that is why I must ask you to help us. Zora’s Domain is in grave danger, Louis. Do you see all this rain?”

“Kind of hard to miss.”

“It’s very unusual for this region. The rains haven’t stopped in months, and all we know is that Divine Beast Vah Ruta has been the cause of it. If the rains aren’t stopped, the eastern reservoir will overflow and destroy the Domain!”

Louis blinks, feeling like he’s missing some crucial pieces of the story. “Wait a second. Why is that bad? Can’t you swim?”

Harry tuts. “We can swim, yes, but the floods will still be catastrophic for us. It would be the equivalent of a...an avalanche wiping out one of your villages. We may live at the center of a lake, but we do have buildings and structures, you know.”

Oh. Louis had thought the Domain was underwater. “And why do you need me?”

“Because if the Domain floods, then so will the main rivers. Most of Central Hyrule will be underwater if we let this continue. But my mother can explain better than me, if you come to the Domain with me. Please say you will!”

This is a lot to take in. A ten-foot shark prince—who isn’t wearing any clothing except for the jewelry, and ascot, and some weird epaulettes that can’t be very practical—is begging for his help and it won’t stop raining, but Louis knows he does need to set things right with the Divine Beast anyway. He just hopes he can kill both birds with this stone. “How do I get there?”

Instead of answering, Harry sweeps him up in a crushing hug, and for a second Louis thinks he’s about to be eaten. But Harry sets him down after a moment, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I get terribly excited sometimes. But you’ll have to follow the path—I will be swimming up the river, but I know you cannot do that. Just follow the lights along the path and you won’t get lost! Unless…” Harry lights up. “Mount me!”

“Excuse me?”

“Climb on my back, and I can take you up the river myself!”

“Um, no offense, but I think I’ll just walk, if that’s okay.”

“Well, if you’re sure. The path is dangerous—the monsters up ahead attack with arrows and swords that harness the power of electricity. And as you can guess, it’s especially lethal with all this rain. But if anyone can do it, it’s you!” Harry flashes him a wide grin. “I’ll see you at the Domain!” He backflips into the water and disappears. 

Louis just stands there for a second, getting soaked, trying to figure out how and when a shark prince became his best friend. Were they friends back when Gemma… Louis shakes his head. Don’t bring up the prince’s dead sister, right. He takes a deep breath and crosses the bridge. 

Immediately, something pops out of the river, spitting rocks at him. “Are you joking?” Louis whines to no one, pulling out his bow and shooting the monster between the eyes. Maybe he should have let Harry swim him up the river. Whatever, it’s too late for that now. At least the sun has started to rise, which doesn’t make the rain stop but at least it’s a little lighter. Louis takes his time as he picks his way through the cliffs, careful not to slip on the long grass. The last thing he needs is to bite it and fall into the river and need Harry to come get him. How embarrassing. 

He’s just crossing another small bridge when Harry surfaces right next to him. “Louis!”

Louis doesn’t scream, thank you very much. “Harry!”

“I’m glad to see you’re doing well! You haven’t had too much trouble, I hope?”

“Not really. These balloon things keep popping out of the river, though, spitting rocks and shit at me.”

“Ah, the Octoroks,” Harry says with a sigh. “These are small ones, though, so don’t worry! I’ll swim ahead and see if I can take care of some for you. Do be careful of the Lizalfos in the cliffs, though. Now hurry! I know my people will be excited to meet you!” With that, he swims away, twisting and turning gracefully under the water. 

Lizalfos. Great. Louis will be sure to look out for whatever those are. 

He finds out a minute later that they’re giant lizards. Giant lizards who hop away when he tries to slash at them with them his sword and who shoot at him with arrows crackling with electricity. He gets singed a few times when the arrows graze his tunic, but the burns aren’t life-threatening, so he plugs on. He collects a few of their electric arrows, tucking them carefully into his quiver. Those might come in handy.

Up ahead, he sees a bridge, made of something that shimmers in the light and seems to glow faintly. The balustrades form simple but elegant arches, and he can only guess he’s getting closer if constructs like these are popping up in the hills. It looks like metal, but when he taps it with his sword, the sound is dull, like he’s hitting rock. How the Zora make the stone his shiny is a wonder, but not something he can worry about now. 

Halfway across the bridge, he hears splashing in the water below him. He peers over the edge to see Harry there again, waving at him.

“Louis! Louis! Hi!”

“Hi, Harry,” he calls. “Is everything okay?”

“Just wonderful! How are you? I hope the monsters haven’t proved too difficult?”

“Not really. I don’t like these electric arrows, though.”

Harry scowls. “They’re a nasty development. But,” he goes on, expression brightening once more, “you’re more than halfway there! Just a little longer, across his bridge and around Ruto Mountain! I have faith in you!”

Louis salutes. “Anything up ahead I should watch out for?”

Harry’s emerald eyes widen suddenly, and he points to something behind Louis. “A Moblin, behind you!”

Louis whirls around and looks up, his jaw dropping.

In front of him looms a giant black monster, easily twice his size, wielding a spiked wooden club, Twisted horns rise from its head, and Louis can see sharp teeth like knives jutting out from its long snout. He backs up, a hand on the hilt his sword as the monster lets out a roar. 

Louis turns and jumps. 

He holds his breath as he plunges into the water below, muscles freezing up at the shock of the cold. But before he can swim toward the surface, he feels strong arms around his waist, holding tight and bringing him somewhere.

His head breaks the surface and he gasps in a breath. Just inches away, Harry’s staring at him worriedly. “Louis? Why did you jump?” he asks.

Louis points up to the bridge, where the Moblin is still snarling and stomping its feet. “That.”

Harry’s head-tail twitches. “I was only warning you. I believe you could have taken it on. They’re big, but clumsy, and not very smart.” He pauses. “Have you never fought a Moblin before?”

“No.” Louis hopes Harry can’t see the blush on his face. “ _ Anyway _ , I was wondering if the offer to mount you is still—a thing?”

Harry’s emerald eyes widen. “You want to?”

“Yes, I do, because I want to get to Zora’s Domain as quickly as possible and I should have taken you up on it earlier but I realized I’m not exactly in the mood to become toast. So how does this work?”

“Right!” Harry turns away from Louis, hunching his shoulders. “You can wrap your legs around my waist, don’t be shy. Just please don’t pull my head-tail.”

“Harry—”

“Just let me know when you’re ready, I’d hate to take you by surprise! I want to give you a nice, smooth ride.”

“Please stop talking.” Louis groans, hanging onto Harry as he takes off.

He had been expected Harry to slice through the water like he’s seen him do, but instead, it’s more like a leisurely raft journey. Harry paddles along smoothly, pointing out some interesting stone carvings visible in the cliffs. “The stories of our people are told in those carvings,” Harry says, stopping so Louis can read one of them. “There are ten in total, scattered in the hills around the Domain. Would you like to hear the stories?”

“Tell me.” 

And so Harry does, regaling Louis with tales of Zora princesses and kings from ages ago. He tells the tale of Princess Ruto, a Zora princess from thousands of years ago who fought Ganon alongside the Hylian princess and the chosen hero, and whose name now lives on in the name of the Divine Beast Vah Ruta.

“And naturally, she fell in love with the Hylian hero,” Harry adds.

“Naturally?”

“Ah. We Zora have...a long history with Hylians,” Harry says thoughtfully. “You could say it’s fate. But it’s happened many times in our past that a Zora royal has fallen in love with the chosen hero of their time.”

Louis goes quiet at that. Is Harry trying to tell him...Gemma was in love with him? He furrows his brow, intending to ask, but Harry’s already moved onto another tale.

“We have a tradition that Zora princesses make armor for the ones they intend to marry,” Harry’s saying. “It comes from something we call the Miracle of the Silver Scale. Long ago, the Zora queen crafted armor for the king, and she loved him so much she plucked one of her own scales and wove it into the chest plate, so he would carry her close to his heart as he fought. Hoping her love would be enough to bring him home.”

“Did he live?”

“They were fighting a legion of fierce Lizalfos, the king cornered against the cliffs. It looked like all was lost. But then...the scale saved his life.” Harry pauses for dramatic effect. “As he moved, the sunlight glinted off the scale in his armor, so bright it blinded the Lizalfos attacking him and allowing the king and his army to emerge victorious. And so we’ve been doing it ever since.”

“Only the princesses? What about the princes?”

Harry shakes his head. “The silver scale is one only females possess. The act of crafting armor is nearly equivalent to a marriage proposal.”

Louis goes quiet for a few moments, scanning the cliffs for more of the stone monuments. “Are there any stories about you on the monuments?”

Harry laughs then, a full-bodied sound of joy that has Louis bouncing on his back. “There is! But it’s not nearly as interesting as any of the other stories.”

“No, you have to tell me! Please?” Louis tugs at Harry’s head tail without thinking.

Harry’s reaction is...strange, to say the least. He lets out a sound that’s a cross between a hiss and a growl, something rumbling from deep in his chest that makes his entire being vibrate. “ _ Please _ don’t do that.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Louis lets go.  _ Please don’t eat me _ . “You don’t have to tell me the story if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s...a silly story, really.” Harry’s voice brightens again. “You know those Octoroks, that keep spitting rocks at you? Now imagine one the size of a mountain. It lived in the bay near Hateno Village and terrorized the villagers to the point where they couldn’t even go down to the beach to fish. So I went to fight it myself.” He cranes his head back to look at Louis with a smile. “Can you guess which of us lived?”

“I don’t know, sounds like a pretty tough Octorok,” Louis teases him.

“It ate me.”

Louis’ face falls. “Wait. What? But...you’re alive?”

“I am!” Harry laughs. “It swallowed me whole, and I sat in its stomach for a while before I...well. I had a spear. I think you can guess how I got out.”

“Harry!” Louis puts his face in his hands. “I hope you took a bath after. Do Zora take baths? I mean, you live in the water, but…”

“My mum forced me to spend two hours in the bathing pool with the most fragrant flowers and herbs she could find when I came home, and threw out all the armor I had been wearing. She said she would never get the stench out in a thousand years,” Harry recalls brightly, extending an arm to point at a waterfall up ahead. “Hold on tight. We’re going up.”

“We’re going what?”

“Up! Hold your breath, Hylian!” With that, Harry dives under the waterfall just as Louis sucks in a breath.

For a few seconds, all Louis feels is the weight of the water, drenching him completely and flattening his hair to his forehead. He’s clinging as tightly as he dares, legs hooked around Harry’s waist and chest pressed flat to his back, holding on for dear life. 

And then suddenly they break the surface, and when Louis opens his eyes next, he’s met with a palace made entirely of—glass?

  
Harry stands up straight, forcing Louis to slide to the ground. “Welcome,” he says with a grand flourish, “to Zora’s Domain.”

The Domain is essentially one giant sculpture, a network of staircases and walkways that snake around in loops and disappear down long covered corridors. The centerpiece is a giant fish, perched atop the Domain like it’s greeting everyone who sets foot in the kingdom. “This place is fucking amazing.”

Harry beams, clearly proud of his home. “Built thousands of years ago, when our people first settled in Hyrule. Our architects created it from the translucent, luminous stones found in the surrounding cliffs.”

So not glass, but rock. Still. Impressive. They’ve landed in what seems to be the main square—tiny Zora run around a fountain, chasing each other and singing, and passersby pause to bow to their prince. Harry greets each and every one of them by name. Two Zora, one pink and one purple, swoon when Harry says hello to them.

While Harry’s occupied, Louis walks past the fountain to a giant statue of a female Zora wielding a trident. She looks sort of familiar the more he looks up at her carved face. Like he’s seen her somewhere before.

Harry walks up behind Louis and taps his shoulder, making him yelp. “Are you ready to meet my mother?”

“Your mother...the Queen?” Panicked, Louis looks down at his clothes. He’s completely soaked, his hair is a mess, and he’s probably still gross and muddy, even after the waterfall shower. “Fuck. I look like shit.”

“She knows the path to the Domain is treacherous. She’ll understand.” Harry gives him that wide, encouraging smile again, and offers his arm. “Shall we?”

Louis takes a deep breath. “Yeah, okay.”

He doesn’t  _ mean _ to cling to Harry’s arm like a limpet as he’s led through the Domain, but he definitely clings to Harry’s arm like a limpet as he’s led through the Domain. He’s the only Hylian he sees on the way to meet the queen and he feels like he sticks out like a Bokoblin in a herd of sheep. It doesn’t help that everyone they passes stares at him and whispers, and Harry does nothing to introduce him. So he sticks close as they ascend several sets of stairs to reach a door flanked by two guards, one a slightly darker shade of blue than the other.

“Prince Harry! You’ve returned for the day, then?” says the blue one.

“Returned for the next few days, actually.” Harry thumps Louis on the back. “Louis, meet Cillian and Barry.”

The taller, darker blue one waves. “I’m Cillian!” he supplies helpfully.

Louis waves a nervous hello, as Harry goes on. “We’re on our way to see my mother. She’s not busy, is she?”

The shorter one—the one that must be Barry—sighs. “Fionn’s in there. Again.”

“Again?” Harry groans. “When will he give it a rest?”

“When he dies, probably,” Cillian mutters, opening the door. “But you always take priority.”

“Thank you, Cillian. Louis?”

“Still here,” Louis squeaks out as Harry ushers him past Cillian and Barry and further down the corridor. 

“...to sit around and wait!” comes an angry voice from down the hall. “And Prince Harry spends too much time waiting at the bridge, in my opinion. It’s silly to put our trust in someone we don’t even know will show up.”

They round the corner and the corridor opens up into a cavernous throne room, the ceiling easily fifty feet above his head. Even Harry, who’s twice Louis’ height, seems dwarfed by the scale of the room. 

In the middle, sitting on a tall throne, is a magenta-colored Zora wearing a silver crown. The queen.

“Are we talking about me again?” Harry chimes in.

The queen looks in their direction and smiles. “Harry, my boy!” she exclaims, standing up and walking over to them. She’s as tall as Harry, scales the same color. “You’ve brought a friend?”

“Unannounced!” cries the same voice Louis had heard yelling before. 

“Fionn, please be nice to our guests,” Harry says with a sigh. “He’s with me. He doesn’t need to be announced. Louis, this is my mother, Queen Anne, and our most valued advisor, Fionn.”

Louis bows awkwardly. “Nice to meet you, Your...Highness? Your Majesty?” Fuck. He should have asked Harry how to address royalty. 

Queen Anne just puts a hand on his shoulder, studying his face, before recognition flashes in her golden eyes. “Just Anne is fine. We’re old friends, after all.”

“We...are?”

Anne just laughs. “You’re so funny, Louis! I know it’s been a long time, but the Champion’s Tunic and the Sheikah Slate on your hip gives it away.”

“Oh, fuck, did we meet a hundred years ago and I forgot?” Louis slaps a hand over his mouth, realizing he’s just sworn in front of the Zora queen. 

Anne doesn’t say anything about his language, though. “You don’t remember me?” she asks. 

“The disrespect!” Fionn screeches, pointing an accusatory finger at Louis. He’s much shorter than other Zora he’s seen, closer to Louis’ height, with a head shaped more like a stingray than a shark, and is green all over.

“I don’t,” Louis tells her. “I’m sorry. Jade, back in Kakariko Village, she told me my memory got wiped when I got put to sleep or something so I’m kind of starting from scratch here.”

Fionn still looks extremely put off by the sudden interruption. “Is there a reason for barging into our meeting with an amnestic Hylian?”

“We weren’t having a meeting,” Anne rushes to say. “We were just discussing next steps for the rain issue. I know both Toms are leading a project to construct more retaining walls for the reservoir, but that’s only a temporary solution.”

“Well, I have great news!” Harry grabs Louis’ hand and holds it in the air. “Louis’ going to help us!”

“I said I’d—” Louis tries to say, but Fionn cuts him off with a horrified shriek.

“Him?!” Fionn throws his own hands in the air, fins waving wildly. “He can’t even remember our queen! And you expect him to help us out of the kindness of his heart?”

“Harry, my dear,” Anne says gently, “are we sure this is a good idea?” 

“He’s the Hero of Hyrule!” Harry exclaims. “He may be tiny, but he’s an excellent warrior!”

“He doesn’t remember anything!” Fionn yells again. “This is a waste of time!”

“I might not remember anything, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help,” Louis defends himself. “And—hey, I’m not tiny! I’m five foot nine!”

Fionn rounds on him, glaring at him. “I bet you don’t even remember our dear, sweet Gemma.”

Silence descends on the room. 

“Fionn,” Harry warns, a bite to his tone.

“What? His memory’s been erased,” Fionn replies sourly. 

“That’s enough, all of you,” Anne cuts in. “Louis, would you walk with me?”

Swallowing nervously, Louis follows the queen out of the throne room. Naturally, he thinks the worst. Anne might decide to kick him out, or worse, just throw him into the lake surrounding the Domain. Instead, she leads him to the statue in the main square, the one he’d seen with Harry. “Do you know who this is?” she asks him. 

Louis stares up at the statue’s face, and it clicks. It looks like Gemma, from the memory at the archway. “I do now.”

“Princess Gemma,” Anne says with a sad sigh. “She was...such a soft soul, but a brave one. When Vah Ruta was discovered here at the Domain, she was the first to go and see it. She had no fear of the beast, and our people followed her example. She was so honored to be chosen as a Champion, and I—felt the same, but I worried for her safety. We all did, but Fionn might have been the biggest worrier of all of us.” 

Louis says nothing. What can he say? He doesn’t remember Gemma at all, aside from the tiny glimpse of a vision he’d seen before. He just keeps squinting at the statue as though he can force another memory to return to him. 

He hears something like a whisper, in a soft voice. He looks at Anne, who’s still silent next to him, Strange. It must be someone else walking past. But then he hears it again, this time like it’s coming from inside his head. Is it Princess Perrie speaking to him again?

Suddenly, the voice explodes behind his ears like the thundering roar of a waterfall. He squeezes his eyes shut, muttering curses under his breath as he prays for it to stop. But it doesn’t stop.

 

_ He’s sitting on top a cliff of some kind, looking down on the Domain far below with the sun high overhead. Next to him is a silver trident of painstaking craftsmanship, with teal and magenta jewels dripping from the prongs, glittering in the light. It looks breathtakingly deadly, in the right hands. _

_ “Louis, you have got to be more careful,” someone chides him. _

_ Louis looks down at where small pink hands hold his arm, tending to a bloody gash on his shoulder. _

_ “What were you thinking, going after that Lynel? Honestly, Louis, sometimes you’re the dumbest person I’ve ever met,” the person keeps going. _

_ He looks up, then, and comes face-to-face with the dolphin-head girl. Gemma. She’s the same shade of pinkish-red as Anne, with eyes that seem to shift between brown and hazel. _

_ “I almost had him,” Louis mutters, dropping his gaze to watch her soak a bandage in some kind of sweet-smelling liquid. _

_ “Sure you did,” she patronizes him with a knowing smile. “I’m gonna have to have you take your tunic off.” _

_ “Really, Gemma? I didn’t know you were into me that way,” he teases, exaggerating a wink as he pulls his top off.  _

_ She huffs. “Shut up or I’m not helping you at all.” _

_ “Alright, alright.” He sits as still as he can while Gemma traces around the wound, humming to herself. _

_ “It doesn’t look too bad. Just take it easy for a few days, yeah?” she says, wringing out the bandage and starting to wrap it around Louis’ shoulder. _

_ “Ow!” he whines, whatever she’d soaked the cloth in stinging the cut.  _

_ “Don’t be a baby.” She rolls her eyes and pulls it tight to stop the bleeding. _

_ “Hey!” calls a small voice from below. Louis and Gemma peer over to see who it is. Clambering up the rocks to reach them is a tiny Zora, the same color as Gemma and wearing a little silver circlet with a plumed feather. _

_ Gemma gasps. “Harry! How did you get all the way up here?” _

_ “I swam up the big waterfall!” Harry says proudly. “And then I climbed the rest of the way!” _

_ “Oh, Hylia above,” Gemma mumbles, grabbing her trident and holding it out to Harry, shaft first. “Grab on, and I’ll pull you up.” _

_ “Yay!” Harry blubs, clinging on and giggling as Gemma lifts him the rest of the way. “I wanted to see Vah Ruta!” He points to something behind Louis with an excited noise. _

_ Louis turns around and gasps as he looks up. Behind him, the Divine Beast Vah Ruta towers over all three of them. A mechanical elephant of massive proportions, she’s easily the size of the mountain she stands on. Her eyes glow blue, but she remains still and calm, trunk raised proudly in the air.  _

_ “I thought Mum said you weren’t allowed to come here alone!” Gemma chastises her brother. _

_ Harry hangs his head. He’s so small, his head-tail drags on the ground behind him. “She did. I told her I was going swimming.” _

_ Gemma sighs before putting an arm around Harry and kissing him between the eyes. “Well, I’m proud of you for making it up this far all by yourself. I’m just helping Louis.” _

_ “Louis!” Harry yells, like he’s just noticing the Hylian’s presence, and then gasps. “What happened to you?” _

_ “I tried to fight that Lynel on top of Ploymus Mountain,” Louis explains with a wry laugh. “I didn’t really win.” _

_ Harry oohs softly as he scrambles up Louis’ back to perch on his uninjured shoulder, arms resting on Louis’ head. It’s like having a large, wet, friendly bird sitting on his head. “Are you gonna be okay?” _

_ Louis grins, even as the water drips off Harry’s fins into his face. “Yeah, I’m gonna be alright. Your sister’s gonna patch me up and I’ll be back in business in no time. Big smile?” _

_ “Big smile!” Harry scampers back to the ground, flashing his teeth in a grin so wide his eyes scrunch up.  _

_ “There you go, kiddo.” Louis pats him on the head. _

_ “You should probably be heading back to the Domain,” Gemma tells Harry, fastening Louis’ bandage closed. “Mum’ll be worried. Fionn, too.” _

_ Harry blows a raspberry. “I don’t like Fionn. He’s a crab.” _

_ Gemma stifles a laugh. “He may be, but he cares about you very much. Run back now, before you get in trouble. We’ll be down before you go to bed.” _

_ “Bye!” Harry waves and dives off the cliff, landing in the pond far below with a splash. _

_ Louis peers over the edge nervously. “He’s okay jumping from this high up?” _

_ “He’ll be alright. I’ve caught him diving from Shatterback Point a few times because he’s seen you do it,” Gemma says with a pointed look. “He’s becoming a little adventurer like you.” _

_ “Is that a bad thing?” _

_ “He really looks up to you, Lou. I don’t know if you know how much.” Gemma looks down, laying her trident across her lap. “He told Mum that when he grows up, he wants to travel all over Hyrule just like you. I think he’d actually just follow you, to be honest.” _

_ “Think he’s going to?” _

_ Gemma smacks him upside the head. “Only if you do your job and seal the Calamity away. I’m not letting my brother traipse around Hyrule with that monstrosity loose.” _

_ “I’m gonna do my job!” _

_ “And I’ll do mine.” Gemma smiles at him. “Want to spar again? You can use the trident this time. You still won’t win, though.” _

_ “You’re on.” _

 

“Louis?”

Louis opens his eyes to find he’s curled up on the ground at the base of Gemma’s statue, with the queen and a dozen other Zora crowded around him. “What…” He shakes his head, sitting up. “Sorry, sorry. I wasn’t out for long, was I?”

“Out? You were standing one moment, and suddenly you fell over. But it was only a few seconds ago, so don’t worry, dear,” she says, extending a hand to help him up.

He takes it, wondering if he’s just going to blank out and collapse every time something triggers a memory. It seems terribly inconvenient, but if that’s the price he needs to pay…

“Mum! Louis!” Harry pushes through the assembled crowd to get to the two of them. “Is everything alright?”

“I—I think so.” Louis takes one last look at Gemma’s statue, gaze landing on the trident in her hands. If it’s not the exact same one he saw in the memory, it’s a damn good replica. “Can we talk about this in the throne room?”

Fionn is waiting for them, still looking crabby as ever. “Well?” he demands, arms crossed.

Louis takes a deep breath. “I remember her now. I remember...well, not everything, but more than I did before.”

Fionn huffs. “You went down to look at her statue and just magically remembered?”

“Um, that’s sort of exactly what happened.”

“Hylia help us.” Fionn throws his arms in the air. “Fine! I don’t care! Go die in Vah Ruta, just like Gemma did. Her blood’s already on your hands, anyway.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so just for fun, [here's](https://imgur.com/gallery/QUude3V) a visual of the character harry is based on  
> and [here's gemma](https://imgur.com/UNFW0qk)  
> and [here's fionn l o l](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/zelda/images/5/5b/Buh.png/revision/latest?cb=20180130221348)
> 
> no update next week, as [emma](http://lesbianharrie.tumblr.com) and i will be posting our big bang fic on monday the 23rd! so keep an eye out for that. 
> 
> as always, thank you for reading! please let me know what you think down in the comments, or on tumblr on my [main blog](http://maybetheyrefireproof.tumblr.com) or [legend of zelda sideblog](http://leafviolin.tumblr.com), and check for updates [right here](http://maybetheyrefireproof.tumblr.com/tagged/fic+updates)!


	5. got lost in the ebb and flow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry's emerald eyes are dark, fierce almost, pupils reduced to cat-like slits. “Promise you’ll come back in one piece.”
> 
> “I’ll do my best.” 
> 
> Harry lights up then, demeanor flipping back to jaunty in a second as he grins widely. “Wonderful! I’ll await your return at Zora’s Domain. Come back soon, Louis!” With that, he grips Louis’ face in both hands, smacks a wet kiss to his mouth, and then dives away, disappearing into the depths of the reservoir.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well...it's only been 28 years... sorry friends, i got wrapped up writing other parts of this story and sort of forgot how to write in order, but finally, here we are! action-heavy sequences are definitely Not my forte so were really weird and hard to write so forgive me for sort of glossing over those, but i hope it all makes sense. but to make up for the long wait there's some sweet larry bits so enjoy those!
> 
> aaaand the chapter title is from [miles away by the maine](https://youtu.be/EQkzqqXXwlw)

_Her blood’s on your hands._ Louis’ bones go cold at the accusation.

“Fionn!” Anne barks. “Gemma’s death was not Louis’ fault. You know that. Now please apologize to our guest.”

Fionn doesn’t apologize. Instead, he just stomps out of the throne room.

It’s awkwardly quiet for a few moments. Louis can’t meet either of the royals’ eyes. He...stole Gemma from them? He thought Perrie had enlisted the Champions herself.

“Was it my fault?” he asks, voice barely above a whisper.

Anne shakes her head. “No, Louis, it wasn’t your fault at all. No one could have known what Ganon was going to do. Please don’t beat yourself up about it.”

“Did I kill her?”

“No! Louis, stop, please,” Harry pleads. “Fionn is just being a crab.”

It echoes what baby Harry had said in the memory, and Louis can’t stifle a sharp laugh. “A crab,” he repeats, like it’ll get his mind off of his possible murderous past.

“A crab.” Harry glances at Anne, who nods. “You didn’t kill her. Nothing was your fault. We have faith in you, Louis, and to prove it, we have something we want to give you. Wait right here.”

Harry jogs out, leaving Louis alone with Anne in the throne room.

“You’re still worried,” Anne observes. Louis just nods. “Please put it out of your mind. It was a hundred years ago, after all.”

“I still need to make this right.”

“That’s noble of you, but if we all tried to right the wrongs of the past, that’s all we’d ever do with our lives. Harry’s back, by the way.”

Harry’s carrying a golden chest in his arms, one that makes a dull _thunk_ when he sets it on the floor. “For you.”

“For me?” Louis drops to one knee to flip the latch and lift the lid. “Oh, my Goddess…”

Inside is the most beautiful set of armor he’s ever seen. The metal is a gleaming silver with a blue shift, like the sunlight hitting Lanayru Sea, and delicate swirls adorn the tops of the bracers and the shoulder plates. The main chest plate is a bit darker in color, but still shines in the glowing light of the throne room. Right in the center are the three crescent shapes that make up the Zora crest.

“Gemma made it,” Anne tells him softly, as the door to the throne room opens once again and Fionn stalks back inside, only to start shrieking once again.

“Don’t touch that!” he shouts at Louis, marching up to the Hylian and shutting the chest.

“What the—” Louis yanks his hands away from the chest before his fingers get shut in the lid. “What’s going on?”

“Princess Gemma made that armor!”

“I’ve been told.”

Fionn glares at him. “You don’t even know about the Miracle of the Silver Scale, do you?”

The Miracle of the Silver Scale. The story Harry told him as they swam up the river. “Harry told me. He said female Zoras make armor for the ones they plan to marry…” He trails off, thinking back to the question he’d had on the tip of his tongue but hadn’t asked.

“Fionn.” Harry’s voice has an controlled edge to it once more. “This is a gift from us to the Hylian Champion.”

“It isn’t meant for him!” Fionn jabs a finger at Louis, fins flapping wildly with the motion. “ _He_ is not worthy to wear the armor crafted by our princess.”

“I’ll have no more of this bickering today,” Anne speaks up, swatting Fionn’s hands away from the chest. “We are giving this to Louis to assist him in taming Vah Ruta. End of story. Whether he wishes to keep it afterward is his choice. But without it, he can’t swim up the falls to the reservoir.”

“I give up! Nobody listens to me anymore. Hylia have mercy,” Fionn grumbles.

Harry opens the chest again. “Go on, try it on.”

Louis lifts the pieces out one by one, putting it on with the slow unease of a brand new squire. The first piece is a thin, lightweight blue shirt that he’s told can either go over a tunic or be worn by itself.

“It’s suggested you wear it without underclothes, though. It’s water-resistant and should fit as close to your body as possible to be most effective,” Harry tells him. So Louis sheds his tunic, aware of Harry’s eyes peering curiously at his bare skin while he pulls on the new shirt. The material is stretchy and reinforced with tough, hardened scales at his joints for protection, but at least they don’t hinder his movement. The shoulder plates and bracers are next. Harry helps him strap them on, his massive hands fastening the buckles with surprising grace. Louis shivers when he realizes Harry’s nails are pin-sharp, and he tries not to squirm too much while Harry’s touching him.

Finally, he pulls the chest plate over his head, cinching the buckles as tight as they go. Harry fastens the other side while Anne coos.

“Louis, you look like you were born to wear this armor,” she says with a smile. “The shift in the metal really brings out his eyes, doesn’t it, Harry?”

“Mum!” Harry protests, fussing with the buckle some more before stepping back. Something strange, dark, clouds his eyes, pupils shrinking to slits. “Louis, you…”

“I what?” Louis glances down at himself, tugging self-consciously on the bracers so they fit more comfortable over his forearms. “It’s too big and it looks dumb.”

“Not at all, my friend, you look marvelous!” Harry grins, his eyes now back to normal. “Well, it is a _bit_ large on you, but you look well-equipped to fight the blight inside Vah Ruta. One more thing. Do you happen to have any shock arrows?”

“Shock arrows? Like the ones the Lizalfos shot at me on my way here?”

“Yes! Those!”

Louis checks his quiver. “I have nine.”

“That should be more than enough,” Harry says with a nod.

“Good luck, Louis,” Anne calls to him. “I don’t believe you’ll need it, but my prayers are with you.”

Louis inclines his head. “Thank you.”

Harry straightens, adjusting his sword belt around his waist. “I can take you up to the reservoir. Are you ready?”

Louis takes a deep breath. Is there even a way to mentally prepare for ridding a massive, ancient elephant automaton of evil? “I guess.”

“Wonderful!”

“Be safe, both of you,” Anne calls after them as they leave the throne room, and Harry promises they will.

Harry takes him to the rock cliffs surrounding the Domain, where a path leads up to the main reservoir. Louis can already hear the heavy sounds of water moving, and he has a feeling it’s not just the waterfall he passes on the way. And still, the rain pours down, matting Louis’ hair to his temples. His one consolation is that whatever waterproof skin Harry gave him works.

When they arrive at the edge of the reservoir, Louis gasps.

It’s just like he saw in the vision, only more menacing. Vah Ruta stands in the middle of the reservoir, trunk raised high and spouting water high into the sky. Its eyes glow an evil pink, and every so often it emits a mechanical rumble that shakes the ground and sends waves rippling through the reservoir.

“That’s Vah Ruta,” Harry says, as though that weren’t obvious. “Do you see the glowing pink spheres on her back?”

“The what?”

Harry points. “Right there.”

Louis squints. “Oh. Right.” There are four of the spheres, seemingly arranged in a square on the Divine Beast’s back. “What about them?”

“Those are thevalves that control the water flow. Right now, as you can see, all the water coming out of her trunk is the cause of the rains down below, so if you shut off the water…”

“I stop the rain.”

“Exactly. There’s one more thing I didn’t tell you about the Zora armor. Aside from being waterproof, it will also allow you to swim up waterfalls. So if you look at the water coming out of her sides, you can see you’ll be able to swim up them and turn off those valves.”

“How do I do that?”

“Use the shock arrows. One to each valve should do the trick.” Harry dives into the reservoir with an elaborate flip before surfacing and grinning at Louis. “Mount me and I’ll swim you out.”

“You know, you really need to stop telling me to mount you. I don’t know if it means something different for Zoras, but for Hylians, it’s kind of…” Louis smirks.

Harry smirks right back. “I meant what I said. Now hurry, we don’t have much time.”

Louis does just that, sliding into the water and clinging tightly to Harry. Awkward flirting with a shark-man can wait until later. “Let’s fucking do this.”

This time, Harry takes off at full speed, meaning Louis has to wrap his arms and legs around Harry and hold on for dear life, while trying to keep his head high enough that he won’t get a faceful of water every time Harry slices through the waves. Coughing and spluttering, he picks his head up as much as he dares, knowing if he sits up too much he’ll probably get thrown off.

Harry heads straight for the first waterfall as Vah Ruta’s trunk shakes, as though it’s threatening to explode. “Here we are! Get ready to jump off!”

“Wait—how do I swim up?”

“Just swim to the base of the waterfall and give one really powerful kick! The armor will do the rest! Oh, and you may want to get your paraglider ready!”

Well, if Louis lives in a world where Sheikah technology lets him warp from one side of Hyrule to another, he can believe there’s some sort of technology that raises his swimming skills far above average. He takes a breath, jumps off Harry’s back, and kicks.

He makes a mental note, as he glides up the waterfall and spits water out of his mouth, to ask Harry how in Hylia’s name this armor works. But now’s not the time to question anything that makes his goals easier. He’s shot out of the top of the waterfall, and remembers what Harry told him about using his paralider. He whips it out to slow his descent, angling it so he can land on Vah Ruta’s back. The beast seems to be made of whatever material the shrines are, which—well, that makes sense considering they were Sheikah inventions. After another minute of wiping his face somewhat dry, he nocks a shock arrow, taking aim at the glowing valve, and lets it fly.

It hits it mark with a sharp sizzle, and the pink light flickers before winking out completely and stopping the water flow. Nice.

Louis turns then, taking careful steps across the beast’s rumbling back, afraid it might move suddenly and throw him back into the reservoir. He makes it across, though, and sees the second valve right in front of him. Perfect.

He shuts them all off like this, gingerly picking his way across the slippery surface once he’s done to shout down to Harry. “What now?”

“You’ve finished?” Harry calls back, a note of surprise in his voice. “Oh, well done, Louis! I had expected you might want to swim up each waterfall in turn but you’ve found a way to do it all at once! Come back down here, quickly now!”

Louis jumps, diving into the water next to Harry just in time for Vah Ruta’s trunk to fall into the reservoir with a mighty crash, sending a wall of water rising ten feet into the air. The two of them just bob as the waves pass under them, floating like leaves. Once the trunk has fallen, the rain stops.

“Louis, you did it!” Harry crows. “The rains have stopped! The reservoir is no longer in danger of overflowing!”

“Well, that’s great and all, but I still need to get inside to—do whatever I need to do,” Louis points out, swimming closer to hold onto Harry so he doesn’t tire from treading water.

“Come on, then, I’ll swim you around to the entrance.”

Louis climbs on Harry’s back once again, arms curled loosely around the prince’s shoulders as he’s paddled farther out into the reservoir. On the beast’s right side, a panel has opened, revealing a platform with an all-too-familiar pedestal. “Well, here we are,” Harry announces. “Again—I’m very impressed with how quickly you managed to solve our rain problem! My people are forever in your debt.”

“Don’t speak too soon. I always have time to fuck it up.” Louis says, falling flat on his face as he hoists himself up onto the platform.

Harry just grins, showing off both rows of teeth as his fins splash happily. “Be brave, Louis! The fate of Hyrule is in your hands!”

“No pressure or anything,” Louis mutters to himself, shaking the water from his hair like a dog.

Harry frowns. “Hey, I didn’t mean it that way. Just—come back to me. To us.”

“I will.” Louis turns away, only for Harry to curl a hand around his ankle and drag him back into the water. “What the fuck!” he yelps, twisting around in Harry’s grasp so he can see his face.

Harry’s staring at him with that same intense look he’d worn back in the throne room, when Louis first put on the Zora armor. His emerald eyes are dark, fierce almost, pupils reduced to cat-like slits. “Promise you’ll come back in one piece.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Harry lights up then, demeanor flipping back to jaunty in a second as he grins widely. “Wonderful! I’ll await your return at Zora’s Domain. Come back soon, Louis!” With that, he grips Louis’ face in both hands, smacks a wet kiss to his mouth, and then dives away, disappearing into the depths of the reservoir.

Louis is left treading water with one hand resting on the platform, blinking and bemused. Curious, he raises a hand to touch to his lips, blushing. Fuck, Harry just kissed him. Harry kissed him and made him promise to return. Well, he’ll do his best to make good on his promise. He clambers back onto the platform, striding up to the pedestal. The Sheikah eye stares up at him, outlined with a blue glow. He fishes the slate out of his pouch and touches it to the surface. Instantly, it lights up, glowing blue, and the heavy stone door lifts to allow him inside.

Well, good to know Sheikah technology works even when wet. With a deep breath, he faces the open doorway and steps through the threshold.

But before he can take another step, he hears a voice.

“Louis? Louis, is that you?”

He stops dead in his tracks, trying to place the voice. “...Gemma?”

“Who else would it be?” Gemma laughs. “It’s so good to see you again! I’m glad you’re doing alright after...well, you know.”

“Actually, I don’t really,” he admits. It’s weird to be talking to thin air, but it’s definitely not the strangest thing he’s done since waking up. “I sort of woke up without my memory.”

“You what?”

“Jade said something about the sleep they put me in erased my memory.”

“But you remember some things? You remembered me, after all.”

“Only a bit. It’s like, when I go to certain places or see certain things, then it triggers a memory, but it’s not much. I remember one day sitting on top of Vah Ruta with you and Harry swam up the waterfall to visit us, and then I remember the day we were at Mount Lanayru with Perrie.”

Gemma gasps at that. “That’s all?” she asks, a note of sadness in her voice. “You don’t remember...anything else?”

Louis shakes his head. “I’m hoping that as I keep going, I’ll start remembering more, but that’s all I’ve got for now. Why, is there something important I should know?”

“Well, it would be easier to regain control of this thing if you remembered the layout, but don’t worry. I can help you. The first thing you need to do is go inside and find the Guidance Stone, which will show you a map and let you control certain parts of Vah Ruta from your Sheikah Slate,” Gemma explains. “Then there are five terminals to find that that, once they’re all activated, will let you access the main control unit.”

“And you can tell me where everything is?”

“Once you have the map, you’ll be able to see the locations of each terminal, but some of them are hard to find. I’ll help you there.”

Louis nods once, steeling himself before saying, “Okay, I think I’m ready.”

“In that case, head on in.”

The first thing he sees when he sets foot inside Vah Ruta is a mass of glowing purple sludge that seems to move on its own. In the middle of the mass is a yellow eye the size of his head, staring right at him. Yelping, he slashes out with his sword, stabbing it right through the pupil, and it disappears, along with the sludge.

“Oh—and watch out for the Malice.”

“I’ve noticed,” Louis says wryly, walking on in and taking in the Divine Beast.

He’s standing in a high-ceilinged chamber that he realizes is the inside of Ruta’s body. The whole thing is mostly hollow, with a few platforms and giant gears but for the most part, it’s open. Sunlight streams down through the large rectangular gap in the ceiling. Under any other circumstances Louis would be fascinated at how such minimal machinery can power a massive invention like this, but right now he’s single-minded in his task. As magnificent as the beast is, there’s a lingering sense of sadness in the place, and he’d like to get out as quickly as possible.

“Where to now?”

“Turn left. There’s a small pool of water running under a gate, and behind that gate is the Guidance Stone. Do you see it?” Louis tells her he does. “Good. Can you get under the gate?”

Louis studies the gate before it hits him. It’s really like a large shrine, he supposes, with odd little challenges he’s got to figure out. So he summons up the Cryonis rune to create a block of ice in the shallow water running under the gate. Sure enough, the ice block lifts the gate just high enough for him to duck under and reach the Guidance Stone. Now this, at least, he can do. There’s a slot for his Sheikah Slate, so he pops it in and watches as the screen flickers to life and lights up blue.

“There you go! Now you have the map. Do you see the glowing points? Those are the terminals like I was telling you about,” Gemma tells him.

Louis takes the slate out of the stone and peers at the map. He can see an outline of the Divine Beast, with five yellow dots scattered around. There’s also a strange curved line with a yellow square shape in the middle near Vah Ruta’s trunk, almost like a sliding scale but he doesn’t know what that’s supposed to be for. “Yeah, I see them. And there’s something else here. This thing?” Curious, he touches his fingertip to the square and drags it along the curved line.

Immediately, he feels the floor shake under his feet, and then there’s a steady, eardrum-rattling grinding sound. It only lasts for a few seconds, but it feels like an eternity when it finally stops and Vah Ruta trumpets ferociously.

“You couldn’t wait a minute?” He can practically hear Gemma rolling her eyes at him. “Okay, don’t touch anything else just yet. I was _going_ to tell you that’s how you can control Ruta’s trunk. You’ll need it to access certain interior chambers.”

“Why?”

“Because interior design wasn’t really the first priority building these things, sadly. Anyway, do yourself a favor and put her trunk back where it originally was, and then I’ll guide you to the terminals. Again—be careful of the Malice, and watch for small Guardians.”

The first terminal is easy to find, underwater just on the other side of the room from the Guidance Stone.

The second one he finds standing on the inside of a spinning gear that makes him feel a bit like a rabbit running on a wheel as he chases it down long enough for him to tap his slate to the pedestal.

The third one takes him a while to figure out. Gemma leads him up a series to ramps until he reaches a walkway that takes him straight to the biggest gear. And right in the middle, but upside down, is a pedestal that houses the third terminal.

“What you’ll want to do is finally use your Sheikah Slate to move Ruta’s trunk so it’s tilted almost backwards, like she’s spraying water over her back. The water flow from her trunk will make the gear move so you can reach the terminal.”

“Hang on, I thought I shut off the water flow.” Louis furrows his brow, confused.

“You did. Before, the water flowing out of Vah Ruta was Ganon’s doing—a neverending flow meant to flood the Domain and all the lands around it. Now, she’s cycling through water already in the reservoir, so there’s no danger to us,” Gemma explains.

Louis shrugs, accepting the answer and doing as she says. Sure enough, the water makes the gear move, like a water wheel in a river, making it rotate so the pedestal is within reach.

The first time Louis jumps for it, he misses, crashing to the bottom of the gear, which means he has to head back up the ramps and try again. And then he misses again. And again, and to his chagrin he can hear Gemma laughing at him.

“Stop laughing at me!” he whines, brushing himself off after he falls on his ass it for the fourth time. “It’s hard!”

“Come on. People falling is fucking hilarious.”

Louis grumbles and takes that as incentive not to fall again. This time, he leaps from the platform toward the pedestal—and lands on his feet right in front of it. Thank fuck. He presses his slate to the the surface, watching it light up blue like the first two had.

“Hey, look at it this way. Now you’re more than halfway there!” she says encouragingly.

Louis just groans.

The fourth terminal is located at the end of Ruta’s trunk, but before he can even get to the trunk, Gemma tells him he has to ride the giant cog up to a platform on a higher level. This time, at least he doesn’t eat it while jumping onto the teeth of the cog, instead landing squarely on the cog and letting it carry him higher. Once he reaches the upper level, he has to flatten the trunk out and walk down the length of it, fully aware that the water the Divine Beast been spouting this whole time has made the surface extremely slick. One misstep and he’ll plunge into the reservoir a hundred feet below him.

As though she’s reading his mind, Gemma laughs as he picks his way across the trunk. “Don’t worry. If you fall, I’m sure Harry will save you.”

Louis sees this as an opportunity. “Hey, so, speaking of Harry…would you happen to know how emotionally available he is?”

“Oh? What brings this up?” Gemma sounds like she’s trying to hold back a laugh.

“Just wondering.”

Gemma gasps. “Louis, do you fancy my brother?”

“I said I was just wondering!” Louis exclaims, a little too quickly.

“You do!” She squeals, actually squeals out loud. “He has grown into a handsome prince, hasn’t he? He’s got all the Zora ladies fawning over him, but he’s not interested in any of them. From what I’ve seen from up here, he doesn’t seem to like ladies very much at all, in a romantic sense. So let’s say he’s _very_ emotionally available.”

 _Interesting_ , Louis thinks to himself, storing that information away as he activates the fourth terminal.

The fifth one takes even more finagling to find. While he’s standing at the terminal at the end of Ruta’s trunk, Gemma tells him to raise the trunk once again, and when he’s high enough, jump off and land on the Divine Beast’s back. He does as she tells him, alighting gently on a small ledge with the help of the paraglider.

“Do you see the small square hole in the floor? Drop down to the level under this one.”

The level below has a metal crank and a gaping hole in the floor, through which Louis can see the last terminal.

“Is that fire all around it?” he asks Gemma, gulping a bit and crouching lower where he’s peeking over the edge.

“It is. Just turn the crank—it’ll open a skylight in the ceiling for the water coming out of the trunk to get inside and douse the flames. Just activate this one and then we can head back to the main control unit!”

The crank is too heavy to push on his own, so he uses the Magnesis rune to turn it, watching as two panels on the ceiling slide open and water comes gushing inside. Perfect. Once he’s activated the final terminal, Gemma speaks up again.

“That’s all five of them! Okay, do you remember how to get back to the first chamber you started in? Head back there.”

Rather than try to retrace his steps, Louis just pulls out his paraglider and jumps. The hollow interior of the beast means he can float down, past all the cogs and platforms jutting out in the center and land on the first level, right next to the first terminal. And on the other side of the wall is a doorway to a room he hasn’t been inside yet. The whole room is flooded, it seems, with a few inches of water, and on the far side is what has to be the main control unit. It looks a bit like a flower bud or an onion, almost, stout and rounded and reinforced with stone banding at the top. Right in front is a pedestal, glowing orange.

“That’s it. Go activate it, but be careful,” Gemma cautions.

Louis’ heart is pounding as he wades through the shallow water to reach the unit, Gemma’s warning putting him even more on edge. For a second he just stares at the pedestal, summoning the courage to activate the unit. His free hand clenches at his side. He thinks of Harry, waiting back at the Domain for him, and of his promise to come back in one piece.

The second he touches the slate to the pedestal, Malice explodes out of the control unit, congealing midair to form a misshapen incarnation of Ganon, easily twenty feet in height, screeching like a Bokoblin and wielding a giant spear. It floats above the terminal, hissing and jabbing its spear at Louis.

“Look out, Lou!” Gemma’s voice is panicked. “That’s Waterblight Ganon! It used my own damn water against me and that’s how it beat me a hundred years ago. But I have faith in you, and so does Harry! Kill this thing so you can return to him!”

Louis blinks, trying to take in the sight before him and Gemma’s words. “Uh, I don’t know if this is a good time to bring Harry into this—”

“Fucking look out!” Gemma shrieks, and Louis jumps out of the way just in time to avoid getting impaled with the spear. “Focus, Louis, come on! Don’t you die in here, too!”

 _Don’t you die in here, too._ That’s what gets his adrenaline spiking, heart pounding as he circles Waterblight Ganon warily. He’d use his shock arrows, but he’s standing in a pool of water as it is and he’s not sure he wants to test whether he’ll electrocute himself in the process. So regular arrows it is. Keeping his distance, he does his best to dodge the spear, shooting at the blight whenever he gets a clear shot. With each hit, it lets out a ghastly scream, but shows no signs of slowing down until finally, it floats up to the ceiling.

“Uh, Gemma? What’s it doing?” he asks, scrambling back to keep it in his line of sight. It’s attached itself to the ceiling, conjuring up glowing blue blocks of—something.

“It’s ice! Louis, use Cryonis!” Gemma cries, as the blight shapes the ice into deadly spikes and throws four toward Louis. He doesn’t have time to get his Sheikah Slate out, just barely managing to curl into a ball as the ice crashes harmlessly onto the floor around him.

“Use what?” he yells, fumbling with the slate and pulling up the correct rune.

“Aim it at the ice—you can destroy it before that thing throws them at you, quickly!”

Louis does, watching the thing create more ice. But this time, he’s ready. With three short bursts, he shatters each icicle before they head his way. Waterblight looks confused for a second, letting out a roar before starting to make more.

Something clicks in Louis’ brain, and he pulls out his bow once again. While the blight is busy making ice…he can shoot at it, and then be ready with the slate once it’s finished.

He falls into a rhythm once he sees the pattern, alternating between his slate and the bow, until the thing falls from the ceiling and crashes to the floor in front of the control unit, splashing water everywhere. Louis doesn’t think before drawing his sword and stabbing it in the face.

The thing writhes, letting out an unearthly howl of pain as it twitches once, twice, then disappears in an explosion of purple smoke.

Gemma cheers. “Louis, you did it! That was amazing!”

Louis certainly doesn’t feel amazing. His heart feels like it’s in his head, the rush of blood and adrenaline too loud in his ears. “Fuck, I’m still alive,” he mutters in wonder. By some kind of miracle, he’s not even hurt too badly. His shoulders are sore from rolling and dodging, and he knows he’ll feel the strain from the bow in a few hours, but he’s still got all his limbs and he’s not even bleeding, so that’s pretty good in his book.

“So…what now?”

“Just touch the slate to the pedestal again.”

Louis eyes the stone slab warily. “The last time I did, all that purple shit ejaculated everywhere.”

Gemma makes a disgusted noise. “You really had to say ejaculated, didn’t you?”

“It did!”

“Just do it!”

Louis does, and this time, no Malice erupts from the unit. Instead, it just lights up blue like the shrine pedestals, and the next time he hears Gemma’s voice, it’s right behind him.

“I’ve missed you so much.”

He whirls around to see Gemma standing there, hovering a few inches above the floor. Her form is translucent, glowing a soft green. She looks just like her statue depicts her, with a gentle smile and kind eyes, head tail curving gracefully over her left shoulder.

“Gemma,” he breathes, suddenly aware of the knot in his throat. “Gemma, I’m so sorry.”

“What are you sorry for?”

“I let you die,” he whispers. “I let all of you die.”

“Louis.” Her voice is soft, with a hint of sadness. “Please don’t blame yourself. There was no way you could have known what was going to happen. I mean…none of us did.”

“Still…” It’s fully hitting him now, with Gemma right before his eyes and the weight of exactly what happened 100 years ago crashing into him like a boulder to the chest. Gemma didn’t deserve to die in here, fighting _that_. Harry didn’t deserve to lose a sister, Anne didn’t deserve to lose a daughter, and the Zora didn’t deserve to lose their princess. A very small part of him knows she’s right, that there was nothing he could have done, but he still feels enormously guilty. Fuck, he has to sit down. He slumps against the control unit, sitting in the shallow water. Gemma follows him, sitting cross-legged in front of him.

“Hey, Lou. Listen to me, okay?” Gemma waits until he looks back up at her. “You did the best you could. And so did we. Sometimes your best just…isn’t enough. But you’re the only one out of us who got a second chance. So don’t waste it. Take it, and let us help you in the only way we can. Promise?”

Louis nods, dragging in a deep breath even though his chest still feels heavy. “I promise.”

Gemma changes the subject. “Hey, want to hear some good news?” she asks brightly.

“Please.”

“Harry’s had a crush on you for ages, you know. Even back when he was just a pup,” she says with a smile. “You said you remembered a day when we were sitting on the mountain with Ruta and Harry swam up the waterfalls to see us, right?”

“I did.”

“Well, there’s something that happened later that day, after you retired for the night. I was tucking Harry into bed and he asked me when he’d be old enough to get married.” Gemma’s lips quirk into a fond smile. “I told him that when he was a grown-up Zora and he found someone he really loved and wanted to spend the rest of his life with, then he could get married. And do you know what he said?” she asks him, eyes shining with mirth.

“Tell me.” Louis’ starting to smile again despite himself, shoulders relaxing as he tries to imagine baby Harry asking Gemma about getting married.

“He said, ‘I wanna spend my whole life with Louis!’” Gemma covers her mouth, but her eyes can’t hide her amusement. “And I didn’t have the heart to tell him about how different Zora and Hylian lifespans were, so I said to him, well, maybe one day. I’d bet my trident he’s overjoyed that you’re both of marrying age now,” she teases him. “Don’t even bother denying it, I know you like him, too. Just promise me one thing.”

“Anything.”

Gemma crosses her arms. “If you do anything to hurt my little brother, I will not hesitate to turn this elephant around and fire Ruta’s lasers directly at you.”

Louis grins back. “I could never. He’s too good for me.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far. I think you’re exactly what the other needs right now. But I’ve kept you long enough. I want you to take this,” she says, clasping her hands in front of her sternum and closing her eyes.

“What—” Louis begins to ask, but the blue tendrils of light snaking out from Gemma’s figure distract him from finishing the question. The light surrounds him, enveloping him completely before abruptly fading away. “What’s this?”

“It’s my healing power,” Gemma explains. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember that, either?” Louis shakes his head, and she sighs. “The one day I use regular bandages to patch you up is the one you remember, of _course_. But anyway, I had a gift for healing. Almost like magic. Obviously I can’t really use it where I am, but I have a feeling you’ll be needing it,” she says, lips quirking in a half-smile. “If you’re still as reckless as you used to be, you definitely will. If you ever feel yourself on the brink of death with no other options, just think of me and my power will do what it can. But use it sparingly. Even I couldn’t call upon my power too often before it drained me of energy and stopped working.”

“So what you’re saying is, I’m not totally invincible but I’m a little bit invincible?” Louis chuckles.

“Something like that.” Gemma grins at him. “I think it’s about time you go back to Harry and tell him you’re safe. I’ll take Ruta up to her old perch on the mountain and aim her light at the castle. When you give the signal, I’ll do everything I can.”

“Will do. Uh…how do I get down from here?”

“If you have your paraglider, it might be easier to just jump off the platform where you came in, and land on the west side of the reservoir. Harry will find you there, I’m sure.” She holds her arms out, then hesitates. “I wish I could hug you right now. But I’m proud of you. Keep fighting the good fight, and we’ll win. And…please tell my family I love them.” She gives him one final smile before she’s fading away, the green lights swirling around her translucent figure until she’s gone entirely.

With her parting words still echoing in his mind, Louis heads back through the Divine Beast, finding the entryway and stepping off, happy to be one step closer to finishing his mission. When he lands on shore, he only makes it two steps before Harry comes barreling out of seemingly nowhere.

“Louis! You’re back!” is all Louis hears before he’s wrapped up in a bone-crushing embrace.

“Harry!” he squawks out, wriggling a bit as Harry’s hug’s disturbing his armor and making part of the shoulder plates dig into his chest rather painfully. “Let—go—please!”

Harry finally puts him down, having the decency to look just a little sheepish. “Apologies, Louis, I was just so excited to see you back alive! And so quickly! She’s freed, then?”

As if on cue, the earth beneath their feet begins to rumble, and their attention is drawn back to the reservoir. With slow, ground-shaking steps, Vah Ruta emerges from the water, ascending the mountain until she’s standing atop Ruto Mountain. Her tusks lengthen, pointing toward the black mass surrounding Hyrule Castle, and then finally, she is still once more, poised regally atop the plateau.

Louis can only watch the whole thing in reverence and fascination, only looking away when Harry grips his shoulder. “You’ve done it,” Harry whispers. “We owe you everything, Louis. Truly.”

“Come on back. My mother’s going to be overjoyed.”

~

Breaking into a 10,000-year-old mechanical wonder? No problem. Battling the evil incarnation of Ganon inside? Piece of cake. But facing Anne and Fionn afterward? Louis feels like he can’t breathe.

But Harry waxes poetic about his bravery, leaving Louis a furious blushing mess at his side. Fionn doesn’t shriek, which is a good sign, even when Anne gifts Louis with a beautiful silver trident, made of durable metal and adorned with teal and magenta gems, just like the one he’d seen in his memory.

“The very trident Princess Gemma fought with,” Anne tells him.

Louis’ jaw drops as he turns the weapon over in his hands. “You would really let me have this?”

“Gemma would want you to,” Fionn says. Louis looks at him in surprise. Fionn gives him a blank look, which is as good as a smile from him.

“I—thank you.”

“No, thank _you_. You saved us all, and that is a debt we’ve only begun to repay,” Anne promises him. “We have something else for you as well.”

At some point, Harry had dragged a metal chest from somewhere, and pops it open to reveal more armor. It consists of leggings made of the same water-resistant material as the tunic, with silver greaves and hardened scales sewn in to protect his groin and thighs. “Gemma made these, too,” he explains. “Barry helped us alter them so they would fit you. He can alter the chest piece as well, if you don’t mind waiting the rest of the day.”

Louis frowns. “I mean, I’m still alive, so I think it fits.”

“It really doesn’t, dear,” Anne chides. “You’re so skinny, no doubt due to whatever enchanted sleep they put you in. The buckles are as tight as physically possible but there’s still all sorts of extra room at your waist, and that won’t do.”

“Hmm.” Harry drops to his knees to prod at the buckles. “Yes, the waist could come in. No adjustments need to be made in the hips, though—”

“Can everybody stop looking at my hips?” Louis exclaims, blushing. Anne just starts laughing and dismisses them with a reminder to Louis to let Barry alter the armor.

With the trident strapped to his back, he leaves the throne room with Prince Harry at his side.

“I hope you know my mother was right in saying that was just the beginning of our gratitude,” Harry tells him. “You’ve done so much for us and for our people.”

Louis blushes even deeper. Every word out of the prince’s mouth seems to have that effect, it seems. The compliments and praise are always so achingly genuine, is the thing, and Louis doesn’t really know what to do with all that honesty. And yet these words are special because they come from _Harry_. “I couldn’t have done it with you, you know. I—”

“Prince Harry! Prince Harry!” Two female Zora, one pink and one purple, run up to Harry, adoration obvious in their eyes.

Harry just smiles at them and puts on his most proper princely voice. “Tess, Camille, always lovely to see the both of you.”

The purple one swoons while the pink one gushes, “You’re so brave, Prince Harry! You saved us all!”

And okay, Louis knows he just insisted he hadn’t done all the work, but are these two really going to stand there and act like he’s invisible? “Excuse me,” he pipes up. “I helped, too.”

They look at him like he’s a snail. “And who are you?” asks the purple one.

“This is Louis, the Hylian Champion,” Harry introduces him. “I must admit, very little was my doing. Louis here is the one who freed Vah Ruta and allowed my sister’s spirit to finally rest. All I did was swim him out to the reservoir.”

“So brave!” the pink one says again.

“I’m flattered, as always. Now if you’ll excuse us, I have some matters to discuss with the Champion in private.” Harry inclines his head and ushers Louis away.

“What was that all about?” Louis wants to know.

Harry sighs. “They’re part of my fanclub.”

“You have a fanclub?” Louis gawks. It’s not that it’s hard to imagine, not with how handsome Harry is. And alright, he’s human, but he can recognize beauty when he sees it.

“They’re hoping one day I’ll choose one of them to marry.”

To marry. Right. Harry’s a prince, and he’ll be expected to marry and produce an heir for the throne. With Gemma gone, he’s the last of the Zora royal line. “Will you?”

“Oh, Louis, are all Hylians as dense as you?” Harry smiles. “If I were interested in any of them, do you think I would have let you flirt with me so shamelessly? Do you think I would have flirted back just as shamelessly?”

“So this is flirting!” Louis crows, a little too loudly. Barry, who just happens to be passing by, gives him a funny look. He lowers his voice. “I mean, I thought it was, but then you kept saying stuff about being a treasured friend and everything, so I wasn’t sure.”

Harry barks out a laugh, turning a corner and leading Louis down a long corridor, away from the rest of the Domain. “I didn’t think Hylian flirting methods were so different from the way we court.”

“They’re not, really, I don’t think. I mean, I’m not really an expert on courting, I did _just_ wake up…” Feeling brave, Louis keeps going. “So...when you said to mount you, I’m hoping that has more than one meaning.”

“Would you like to find out?” Harry smirks at him and opens a door.

Louis spots the large water bed inside and smirks right back. “Show me, Prince Harry of the Zora.”

~

Louis wakes some time later, cocooned in Harry’s strong grip. Fuck, his ass hurts, but pleasantly so.

Harry stirs just them, teeth grazing at the juncture of Louis’ shoulder and neck. “Did you sleep well, little one?” he asks, smugness obvious in his tone.

“Hey, I’m not little,” Louis protests, stifling a yawn anyway as he squirms in Harry’s grip to face him. “Tired me out. And by the way, you could have told me you had two dicks, you know.”

“How was I to know you didn’t know?” Harry laughs, kissing Louis’ cheek. “You should have seen your face.”

“We don’t have two! Can you blame me?” Louis pouts, curling into Harry’s side and resting his cheek on his chest.

Harry indulges him, holding him closer. “Not a bit. Are you feeling alright? I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

“No, Goddess, no, I’m fine. Or, you know, I will be.”

“I’d hate to send you off on horseback in this state.”

“Shut up. I can warp right out of here anyway. Is there a shrine nearby?”

“There is, in an alcove just behind the statue of my sister. Would you like me to show you?”

“Please.” But Louis makes no move to get up, still in a content post-sex haze. “But…later, yeah?”

Harry hums, nodding and pulling the blanket over the both of them. “I have all day.”

Just then, there’s a frantic series of knocks on the door. “Prince Harry! Prince Harry!” calls a voice that Louis recognizes as Cillian. “Are you in there? Fionn’s been looking for you everywhere? He says the Hylian Hero is missing!”

“Fuck,” Louis groans, sitting up reluctantly and wincing at the soreness. “I guess that’s our cue to get up.”

Harry shushes him with a finger to his lips. “Just pretend we’re not in here so he’ll go away, and then we can slip out.”

Cillian knocks again. “Prince Harry?” There’s silence for a minute, and then they both hear the blue Zora walk away, spear clinking against the floor as he goes.

Louis lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Is he gone?”

“He will be by the time we get dressed.” Harry slides out of bed, reaching for the silver jewelry that had been discarded on the floor. “Take your time, there’s no rush.”

Louis follows Harry’s lead, pulling on his tunic. The blue fabric reminds him he’s got armor waiting for him in the shop. “Hey, do you think Barry’s done with the armor?”

“Oh, I’m sure he is. It takes much less time to make it smaller than to make it larger.” Harry has the audacity to smirk as he says it, which has Louis rolling his eyes.

“Shut up. I can’t believe you.”

“I could say the same about you.” Harry adjusts his feathered circlet, and turns to Louis, beaming. “You’re a marvel, Louis. You really are.”

“I’m—oh.” That alone has Louis blushing more than anything Harry’s said or done to him in the last several hours. From anyone else, such a sentiment would sound forced or phony, but Harry’s expression is achingly sincere. “I’m really not. Honestly, I’m kind of a mess.”

Harry shakes his head adamantly. “Perhaps you think you are. And I know we haven’t known each other for very long, but I feel like I know you. You’re a good person, Louis. Who else would do so much for so many? You’re like…the pearl inside an oyster.”

“Harry.” Louis blushes fiercer yet, feeling the tips of his ears tingle. “You don’t have to say all that.”

“I don’t, but I want to and I am. My pearl,” Harry repeats with a smile, leaning down to kiss him sweetly. “Will I see you again, after you leave here, or will you be too busy saving Hyrule to come back and visit?”

Louis smiles. “I’ll come back. To visit Fionn, of course.”

“That crab?” Harry laughs, taking Louis by the hand and pushing his bedroom door open.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. He’s a delight.”

“There you are!” exclaims a Zora guard, who comes running up to them. “Fionn’s been mad as a sea urchin because he thought Louis was missing!”

“Nonsense, he was with me the entire time,” Harry dismisses the guard with a wave of his hand. “I was just giving him a tour of the royal libraries. Don’t worry, Tom.”

Tom bows. “Sorry, sir, I just wanted to let you know.”

“If you could tell him we’re both alive and well, that would be wonderful. I’m off to show Louis to Barry’s forge.”

“Yes, sir.” Tom bows again and disappears down a different hallway.

“Still think he’s a delight?” Harry asks once Tom’s footsteps fade away.

“Of course.”

They emerge back into the main courtyard, which has emptied out significantly as the sky’s begun to darken. Only two Zora pups are left, chasing each other around Gemma’s statue and giggling. They pay no attention to Harry and Louis as they walk past, crossing the open space to find Barry’s forge on the other side.

The blue Zora is sitting at a work table, meticulously carving details into a spear. “You’re back!”

“I’ve been told you have armor for me?” Louis asks hopefully.

Barry grins at him, leaving the half-finished spear on the table and walking over to a chest in the corner. “All done. Go on and try it on so I can make any adjustments if I need to.”

With Harry’s help, Louis pulls on the newly fitted chest plate. It’s a noticeable improvement, fitting closely so there are no gaps between his body and the metal, while still roomy enough that he has a full range of motion. “It’s perfect. Thank you so much.”

Barry waves a hand. “Don’t thank me. It’s the least I can do for you in return for saving the Domain. And by the way, if you ever need that trident repaired…come see me.”

Once Louis and Harry bid their goodbyes to Barry, they slip into the alcove behind Gemma’s statue. “Where are you off to next?” Harry asks.

“Uh…” Louis pulls out the Sheikah Slate, pointing at the glowing points in black areas of the map. “Whichever one’s closest to here, I guess.”

“Goron City.” Harry traces a line northwest of their current location to the nearest yellow dot. “In the Eldin region. Oh, Niall’s a great guy. You’ll like him.”

“So this is Eldin?” Louis waves a hand over the region north of them.

“Not all of it. The region directly north of here is Akkala, and Eldin is west of that.”

Akkala. Louis has definitely heard that name before. Didn’t Leigh-Anne and Jesy mention Akkala to him? “Is there a tech lab there?”

“There is!” Harry lights up. “I don’t know very much about it, and the scientists who live there are extremely secretive, but the lab is at the far northeast corner of the region. Are you headed there?”

“Jesy and Leigh-Anne from the Hateno Tech Lab told me to go see them.”

“Better listen to them, then. And actually…let me show you the best way to get there.”

“Just a minute.” Louis taps his Sheikah Slate to the shrine’s pedestal so he can register it as a warp point before he follows Harry outside the shiny structures of the Domain. Harry takes him up a cliff on the western side of the Domain, where Louis can see the golden glow of Death Mountain right in front of him.

“Goron City is on the trail leading up to Death Mountain,” Harry tells him. “I’ve never been there myself. Too dry for me to breathe. But I know they make some fireproof salves and elixirs for Hylians that’ll be useful for you. But if you want to get to Akkala first…” He points to a shrine, glowing orange, located right at the base of the mountain. “Someone at the Foothill Stable is your best bet. They can give you better directions than me. But like I said. Might not want to be riding anything else just yet,” he says with a self-satisfied smirk.

“Oh, shut up. I don’t care if you _are_ a prince.” Louis scrunches his nose up as he gets his paraglider out, which just makes Harry laugh.

“Safe journeys, Louis.” Harry kisses him one last time before nudging him toward the edge of the cliff.

“I’ll see you.”

The last thing he sees when he looks over his shoulder is Harry waving at him, fins flapping with the motion as he shouts, “Come back soon!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a couple of things just to end! first, have this fun deleted scene from louis + harry hooking up:
> 
> _“Oh—oh!” Harry sputters out in surprise. “Louis, what are you doing?”_
> 
> _Louis looks up. “Wait a second. Have you never had a blowjob before?”_
> 
> _“No! That’s not something we do!”_
> 
>   _Louis chuckles. “Goddess, you’re really missing out. How come you don’t do blowjobs?” By way of answering, Harry just bares his two rows of canines. “…Right, okay. I get it."_
> 
> ~
> 
> and speaking of blowjobs, it is a widely-held headcanon that male zora have two (2) penises, due to sharks having 2 claspers. so zora!harry has 2 dicks!! sorry not sorry. 
> 
> thirdly, those who know the game will know i've simplified the dungeons and boss fights by a lot. i just generally wanted the focus of this to be more on the characters and the journey, and i didn't want to get too bogged down in details about these dungeons, so don't mind me.
> 
> and finally, as always, thank you for reading! please let me know what you think down in the comments, or on tumblr on my [main blog](http://maybetheyrefireproof.tumblr.com) or [legend of zelda sideblog](http://leafviolin.tumblr.com), and check for updates [right here](http://maybetheyrefireproof.tumblr.com/tagged/fic+updates)!


	6. with a sense of poise and rationality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis points westward, where they can see the lava bubbling out of the volcanic crater, glowing a blinding yellow in the pitch-black night. “Death Mountain.” 
> 
> Dan makes a vague noise of agreement. “Oh, mood.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well it's only been 700 years since i last updated! i know last chapter was plot-heavy and just A Lot in general so this one is a little shorter and definitely a bit more light. and since it's a dan and phil-centric chapter, i couldn't Not title it with lyrics from [i write sins not tragedies.](https://youtu.be/vc6vs-l5dkc)
> 
> one quick note before we dive in: i've cut down on the number of stables in hyrule. not that that matters too much, but those who've played the game might notice south akkala stable doesn't exist. i've done that in a couple of places just because i'm starting to run out of characters to run the stables, plus i think there are just too many to make sense in the narrative. i think that's it from me, so, enjoy!

Louis realizes, as he lands near the shrine and folds up his paraglider, that he’s left Ted back at his house in Hateno Village. Maybe if he sees Steve at the stable, he can have the man take a message to Dermot or something. He registers the shrine as a travel gate before walking down the hill to reach the stable.

This one is much busier than Calum’s. He spots Nick with his easel out by the paddock, and a few other Hylian travelers clustered around a table. Most interesting, though, are the people he sees that can only be described as  _ large _ . They look almost like rocks that have sprouted arms and legs and hair, similar to Ed from his memory. Gorons, he realizes, though he’s not entirely sure where he got the word from.

And sure enough, Steve is standing outside in the shade, fishing a few beetles out of his pack to give to Nick in exchange for some rupees.

Nick spots him first. “Louis! Did you find that gate you were looking for?”

“I did, thanks. Do either of you know how I can get to the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab from here?” Louis asks, looking between the two of them.

Steve looks thoughtful. “You’re actually going up there?” he asks. “Interesting. I thought the two scientists up there were sort of…reclusive. And by that I mean I thought that haven’t really spoken to anyone but each other in the last fifty or sixty years.”

“So I’ve heard. But Jesy in Hateno Village told me to find them, so I’m just doing what she says. And then I’m headed to Goron City. Oh! Speaking of Hateno, can you take a message back to Dermot for me, please?” Louis adds, before it slips his mind.

“Of course.” Steve produces a piece of paper and a rough pencil, handing both to Louis.

Louis scribbles down the note for Dermot quickly before pulling out his Sheikah Slate. “Okay. So what’s the best way to get to Akkala from here?” He’s in uncharted territory at the moment, but he hopes there’ll be a tower somewhere close so he can unlock more of the map.

“There aren’t too many roads around here, so you’ll only have four forks on the way.” Steve points to the pathway heading south. “Take this road to the end and turn left. Stay left at the second fork, and go left again at the third. So keep taking lefts and you’ll get to East Akkala Stable. Ashton owns that one—he’s super friendly, so just pop in and say hi. He’s an old friend of Calum’s. And from there it’s straight up the hill to the lab.”

“Is there a tower somewhere?”

“There is,” Nick interjects, “but the one here in Akkala is crawling with Guardians. I don’t know if it’s worth it to try and climb it.”

Louis shrugs. “Maybe I can come back to it later. So just—left, left, left?”

“You got it.” Steve flashes Louis a thumbs-up. “Need a horse?”

“Should I?” 

“You don’t  _ need _ one, so if you’re low on cash, I’d save your money.”

Louis quickly counts out his rupees, frowning when he comes up with 28. “Shit. Yeah, I probably should. How long’s the walk?”

“It’ll probably take you most of the day. I’d stay here overnight and set out early in the morning if you want to get to the tech lab before dark.”

Louis decides to do just that and ends up renting a bed at the stable from the owner, a kind man named Zack who can’t be too much older than him. In the morning, he sets out as the sun rises, Steve’s directions scrawled on a scrap of paper so he doesn’t get himself lost. 

He passes the tower in the late morning, and it is indeed surrounded by Guardians.  _ Flying _ Guardians. Louis hadn’t even known those existed. They hover in the sky around the tower, casting beams of pink light onto the ground, as though looking for intruders. Louis picks up his pace and keeps as far from them as possible, hoping they won’t detect him.

Past the tower, he winds through a thick grove of trees with pale bark and red leaves, the grass overtaking the path in some areas. Travelers must not come this way too often. It’s not a particularly confidence-boosting thought, especially when Louis spots a pack of wolves prowling higher up on the mountains to his left. But he presses on. Without a map, he has no idea of knowing how close he is to the tech lab, so there’s little time to waste.

Once he emerges from the grove, the landscape opens up, and it’s miles and miles of green grass as far as he can see. The path straightens out, and he can even make out the vague shape of the stable’s horse head structure in the distance. He can’t have far to go now.

A quick glance at the sky tells him it’s around mid-afternoon. Worst case scenario, he can stay overnight at this next stable and resume his journey in the morning. He picks up his pace again, fishing an apple out of his pack to munch on as he walks. This stable seems busy, too, with a Hylian woman sitting outside by the cooking pot and a blue Rito standing outside with a concertina, chatting with the tall young man behind the counter. And there’s even a shrine just across the path, which he registers at a warp point before walking up to the counter.

The moment Louis arrives at the stable, the sky opens up and a torrent of rain begins to fall. The Rito squawks and dashes inside as the woman by the fire desperately tries to pack up her ingredients before they get soaked. Louis stops to help her gather the green fruits that keep rolling out of her pack before they both take cover inside the tent. 

The stable owner shuts the tent flaps, tying them together so they stay closed, before turning to his shivering, soaking guests. “Well, that’s nature for you!” he says cheerily.  “But give it a few minutes and it’ll be clear soon. It likes to rain out of nowhere and then stop out of nowhere. Shouldn’t be long.”

“Soon” turns into an hour, which turns into two, and guests are all restless when the sun sets and it’s still raining. Even the stable owner, who’d tried to keep everyone entertained with stories and music, had started to wilt around the second hour. People claim their beds, and Louis follows suit, but the steady pelting of the rain against the tent keeps him awake. After an hour of tossing aimlessly, he gets up and sits at the table, looking at a framed piece of artwork resting against the wall.

“My best friend made me that,” says a voice behind him, and Louis whirls around to see the stable owner. “Sorry to scare you. I’m Ashton, by the way.”

“Oh!” Louis’ face brightens at the familiar name. “Shit, Steve told me about you. He said you’re a friend of Calum’s.”

“You’ve been at Cal’s?” Ashton grins. “Yeah, he’s an old friend. You like the map?”

“It’s a map?” Louis brings the candle closer to make out the details. It is indeed a map, seemingly of this region, if the trees rendered in red and gold are anything to go by. “It’s amazing. Did you make this?”

“Oh, Goddess, I could never. My other friend Luke made it for me. He made some for all of us, actually.”

“All of you?” Louis furrows his brow, trying to remember the story Calum had told him. “Wait, Calum mentioned there were a bunch of you. And you guys, like, traveled around and had all kinds of adventures and then something happened to Luke and you guys started up the stables?”

“Basically.” Ashton sits at the table across from Louis. “A couple months after we all went our own ways, Luke made us each a map of the region we picked to start our stables in and had Steve bring them to us. Obviously mine’s Akkala. Mikey got Southern Tabantha, and Calum got the Dueling Peaks.”

“I don’t remember seeing a map in Calum’s stable,” Louis muses. “Unless I just didn’t notice it.”

Ashton frowns. “I guess I’m not surprised.”

“Did they have a fight or something?”

“Not really. They just drifted. Anyway, it’s not my story to tell.” Ashton manages another grin. “So what’s your name?”

“Louis.”

Ashton mutters something under his breath. “Holy Hylia,  _ you’re _ Louis?” he whispers in awe. “Shit, Calum wasn’t lying.”

“He told you I was coming?”

“Well, I didn’t know you’d  _ come _ , but he sent Josh to tell us all that you were awake again.” Ashton laughs. “This is the best news I’ve heard in the last three years. Fuck, this is amazing! But—what are you doing out here in Akkala?”

“I’m looking for the tech lab. Jesy in Hateno Village told me to come here.”

“Interesting,” Ashton says. “The scientists up there are pretty reclusive. I go up and visit sometimes, but I’ve never seen them leave except to get food. And I’m not sure how often they do that.”

“Should I be nervous?”

“Not at all. They’re really nice guys. Just really weird.”

“That’s what everyone’s been saying. I guess they could be evil and weird, so I’ll take nice but weird.” A yawn creeps up on Louis. “I should try and get some sleep.”

“You do that. I’ll pray the rain stops so everyone can continue on their way.” 

Louis wakes to—the sound of rain. He isn’t keen on going out in this weather, but it’s not lightning and he really doesn’t want to waste any more time, so he resolves to set out anyway. One traveler happens to have an extra hood that he trades to Louis for some arrows, so Louis secures that over his head and sets out.

According to Ashton, the tech lab is an hour’s walk up the hill. Between the rain making the ground slippery and the steep incline, it takes Louis closer to two hours before he reaches the top, doubled over and panting as he tries to catch his breath.

This tech lab looks nothing like the other. Whereas Jesy’s was tall and looked a bit like a windmill, this one is much shorter and has no sails. What looks like a giant spyglass is perched on the top, with wooden scaffolding and ladders all around the building. The one similarity is the blue flame burning just outside the door. This must be it.

Louis takes a deep breath and opens the door.

Inside, it’s so cluttered Louis wonders how two people can work in such a space. The first floor is a mess: random machine parts and hunks of metal are strewn across every available surface, and books are piled in haphazard stacks that look like they might fall over at any minute. A spiral staircase in the back leads to what must be a loft area. There’s no one in sight, but a strange little machine sits in the middle of the lab, emitting metallic squeaking noises.

“Uh, hello?” Louis calls out, but there’s no answer. Not from a person, at least.

The machine comes to life, lighting up as gears on the side whir and a hinge on the front opens. It keeps beeping, and it takes Louis a moment to realize it’s speaking to him.

_ Hello _ , it says in its robotic voice.  _ Welcome, New User! How can I help you today? _

“Do you know where Dan and Phil are?” Louis asks it before feeling stupid for talking to a machine.

Instead of giving him an answer, it just flashes and repeats the same message.

Suddenly, Louis hears thumping on the steps. 

“Phil, I told you to stop leaving that thing on when I’m trying to take a nap,” someone complains. The footsteps get louder, and Louis sees the person slowly come into view. He doesn’t look like much, if Louis is being honest. He’s tall, easily over six feet, and dressed in a long black tunic that reaches mid-thigh and has an attached hood. His black trousers are ripped at the knees and the left side of his cheek is red, a sign he’s just woken up from the aforementioned nap. When he notices Louis, he jumps.

“Fucking Hylia, how did you get in here?”

Louis starts at the sudden exclamation. “The door was open. I’m Louis. Jesy sent me to see you?”

Dan’s eyes widen in recognition and he immediately trips over a pile of gears on the floor. “You’re Louis? You’re awake?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m awake, yeah.”

“Shit. Wait here. Let me find Phil.”

But before Dan can go to find Phil, a door opens and someone else walks out. He’s about the same height as Dan—so also stupidly tall—but he’s in a red plaid shirt and his trousers have no tears in them. When he catches sight of Louis, he stops dead in his tracks. “Is that—Dan, who is this and why is he in our lab?”

“I’m Louis,” Louis says with a small wave.

The one in the plaid laughs. “I’m pretty sure Louis is in the Shrine of Resurrections.”

“Yeah, well, I woke up.”

“It’s him, Phil,” Dan adds. “It looks like him  _ and _ he’s got the Sheikah Slate on his hip.”

Louis doesn’t even have time to ask them to stop looking at his hips before Phil’s adding, “Then if he’s really Louis, he’ll have the scars from a hundred years ago.”

“I what?” 

“Wha—Phil, you can’t just ask people to take their clothes off!” Dan shrieks.

“Well, how else are we supposed to know?” Phil crosses his arms. “He could be a Yiga clan member in disguise! Taylor’s really been aggressive lately.”

“And your solution is to do a strip search? It’s not me, but I don’t consent.”

“It’s fine, I’ll take my shirt off, just give me a second,” Louis breaks in, peeling his wet tunic off. Phil bends down to peer at his bare chest. 

“Well?” Dan says from his corner of the lab.

Phil traces his finger over a thin scar under Louis’ collarbone that Louis honestly hadn’t really noticed himself. “It’s him.”

“Can I put this back on now?” Louis asks, wringing out the cloth and leaving a puddle on the floor.

“How about I get you something dry to put on while you’re here,” Dan suggests, already climbing the steps. “You look about the same size as our son, so I’ll find some old things he left behind.”

“You have a son?” 

“Yup,” Phil replies, popping the ‘p’ as he pulls out a chair. “His name’s Troye. Have you seen him around on your travels?”

“I don’t think so. Where does he live?”

“Last he wrote to us, he was thinking about buying a house in that new village in Lake Akkala,” Dan says, descending the stairs with a bundle in his arms. “Here, try these on and Phil will hang your other clothes up to dry.”

“Why me?” Phil protests.

“Because you made him take them off and that was rude!” Dan shows Louis to a smaller room where he can change. 

Dan and Phil are certainly…an interesting pair, he thinks as he pulls on the sleeveless white shirt they’ve offered him. They obviously bicker a lot, as evidenced by the hysterical screams (probably Dan’s) that he can still hear through the walls, but it all seems like the good-natured kind. The old married life kind. Still, Louis gets why Jesy called them weird. 

When he comes back out, he hands his wet clothes to Dan, who promptly throws them at Phil without a warning.

“Hey!” Phil shouts. “Uncalled for.”

“Your mum’s uncalled for.”

“… _ You’re _ uncalled for!”

“Phil,” Dan whines.

“Dan,” Phil whines back.

Louis clears his throat, about to speak up, when something nudges against his leg. Louis isn’t afraid to admit he screams.

“Oh, there she is!” Phil grins.

“What?” Louis asks, looking down to see—a Cucco, nuzzling up to his leg like a cat.

“She’s ours,” Dan says. “Her name is Wooster. That was Phil’s idea.”

“Hey!” Phil protests. “It’s not a stupid name!”

“It’s the dumbest name I’ve ever heard, you spork.”

Good Goddess, they just move from one squabble to the next. “Uh…can you tell me about the ancient weapon technology now?” Louis pipes up.

“The weapons, right.” Phil walks over to his table, picking up a hunk of raw material and handing it to Louis. “You might have noticed the Guardians, the Shrines, and the Divine Beasts are all made of the same ancient material. It’s not stone, or metal, but some kind of combination of the two, we think, and that’s what makes them so indestructible. Modern weapons won’t do a thing against any of those machines, so we’ve been trying to research the ancient weapons.”

“And?” Louis turns the chunk of ancient material over in his hands. “Any luck?”

“A bit. We were able to develop these.” Dan opens a drawer and removes an arrow with a rounded, glowing blue tip. “You have the remote bomb runes on your Sheikah Slate, right? We were able to extrapolate the physical properties of the bombs and make a similar but stronger type of explosive material and pack it into weapons. One of these straight to the eye of a Guardian will destroy it instantly.”

“Could probably take out a Lynel with one, too,” Phil adds. 

“So this shit is really dangerous,” Louis comments.

“Sure is. Here, want to hold one?” Dan offers Louis the arrow, fletching first.

“It’s safe to touch?”

Dan shrugs. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

Well, okay. Louis takes it with both hands, turning it over and examining the tip. Up close, it seems to pulse, as though it has a heartbeat of its own. “This is so fucking cool.”

“Take it, if you want it.”

“Dan!” Phil exclaims. “We didn’t test that one yet!”

“I did.”

“Without me?”

“You were sleeping. Do you really think I’d give this out if it didn’t work?”

“Hang on,” Louis interrupts, a rather important question just occurring to him. “Wait. You knew me a hundred years ago? And so did Jesy?”

“That’s right,” Phil says.

“So…why do you guys look my age? Do Sheikah live for hundreds of years like Zora?”

“We do live longer than Hylians, but the not-aging thing isn’t normal. Basically, it’s Jesy’s fault,” Dan says with a shake of his head. “About fifty years ago, on Phil’s birthday, she brought over a gift she swore was just a joke. She claimed it was an anti-aging potion. Neither of us believed her, so we drank it, and at first we didn’t think it was anything.”

“Tasted like mead,” Phil adds.

“It did. So once she saw nothing bad happened to us, she drank some too. But when we all woke up the next morning and looked in the mirror, we realized the potion literally made us look younger. There we all were, seventy-something years old and looking twenty-six. I mean, it was weird. I think even she was shocked that it worked.”

“So now you don’t age, like, at all? Ever?”

“I guess not. At least we could probably fool those carnival people who try to guess your age,” Dan says. “You could, too. You’re a hundred and something, technically.”

“Yeah, I don’t really like thinking about that too much. It makes things weird.”

“It’s not that weird,” Phil reassures him. “You know what’s actually weird? Dan doesn’t own any clothes that aren’t black.”

“Excuse me, Phil, since when was this about me and my personal fashion choices?”

“What fashion choices? Ohhhh!” Phil looks pleased with what he clearly thinks is a burn. 

“You don’t understand fashion, Phil.”

“You look like a loser in a sack,” Phil deadpans.

“Yeah, but  _ you _ gave me this sack.” Dan hides his face in his elbow, arms outstretched.

“Stop dabbing!”

Wooster chooses that moment to squawk and go running after—something. 

“Yeet,” Dan observes.

“What the fuck does yeet me—wait, no, more important question. Exactly old am I?” Louis asks suddenly. Fuck, he doesn’t even know that about himself. His age, his birthday even...things most people would probably take for granted. 

Dan and Phil exchange a look, and Dan gives a tiny nod. “You were twenty-six when you were put into the Shrine of Resurrection,” Phil tells him. “Twenty-six and a half, really. You would have been twenty-seven when this winter came.”

“So I’m a hundred and twenty-six.”

“Hey, you’re only as old as you feel.”

“But do those hundred years count?” Dan chimes in. “I mean, technically he was alive but he wasn’t really  _ here _ for them.”

The more Dan talks, the more unnerved Louis gets. He changes the subject again. “So, this thing,” he says, tapping the special arrow they’ve given him. “You wouldn’t happen to have this in, like. A sword, would you?”

“We can help you with that” Dan says. “Or rather, Dil can.”

“Who’s Dil?”

Phil pats the robot’s head affectionately. “Sorry, we never officially introduced you. This is Dil, Version 3.1.”

The robot’s lights pulse a soft pink as it whirs.  _ Hello, User Phil, _ it says.  _ How can I help you today? _

Louis has the dim thought in the back of his mind that Dil sounds like the combination of Dan and Phil, but he keeps that to himself.

“Hey, Dil,” Phil says, “how much ancient material would you need to make an Ancient Sword?”

Dil beeps contemplatively.  _ I would need 15 Ancient Springs, 5 Ancient Shafts, and 2 Ancient Cores to manufacture one Ancient Sword. _

“Hey, Dil, what else can you make?”

_ I am programmed to manufacture Ancient Swords, Ancient Arrows, and Ancient Shields. _

“And there you have it,” Phil says. “Thanks, Dil. So, Louis, if you need any of those things, we’re your guys.”

“And where do I find Ancient Springs and Shafts and shit?”

“Dead Guardians,” Dan explains. “Most of the inactive ones have been decaying for the last hundred years, so it’s easy to find parts in the grass around them. Just be careful. Some of them are still—”

“Alive. I know,” Louis interrupts. “I saw a bunch of flying ones around the tower here.”

“Wait, the flying Guardians are surrounding Akkala Tower again?” Phil shoots Dan a troubled look. “That’s not good.”

“Not good? It’s a fucking disaster is what it is,” Dan retorts. “Shit. I hope Troye made it to that settlement in one piece.”

“Hey, Louis.” Phil lights up. “Why don’t  _ you _ head to the settlement and see if you can find Troye? He’s an amazing shot, so if you take a few more arrows and a shield, the two of you should have no trouble taking care of them. But…”

“But first I’m gonna need dead Guardian parts.” Louis’ catching on. Slowly, but he’s catching on. “And where am I supposed to find a field of…wait,” he says as it dawns on him. On the way to Hateno Village, he had ridden through a field full of inert Guardians. “Oh, shit. I have to go all the way back toward Fort Hateno?”

“Back there? Goddess, no, that ride will take you days from here.” Dan shakes his head. “There’s another field of decaying Guardians just south of here, near the new settlement. Head down this hill and stay to the left, and you’ll see the town on your right. You really can’t miss it. I’d find Troye first and take him with you, then come back here with the parts. He’s great at harvesting parts.”

“So I guess I’m off to find your son, then.”

“See, I like him.” Phil thumps him on the back. “He’s smart.”

“Smarter than you,” Dan says with a grin.

“Hey!”

Not wanting to get caught in the middle of yet another domestic, Louis takes the opportunity to slip out of the lab with a rushed “Bye!”

~

By the time Louis reaches the settlement, the sun has already begin to sink low in the sky, the shadows of the oak trees like long dark fingers over the grass. A key detail about this settlement that Dan and Phil conveniently forgot to mention is that it’s very nearly on an island. As Louis walks along the path, he sees the land to his right drop off sharply to border a massive lake. In the center is a perfectly round chunk of land, connected to the shore by a thin isthmus. At the start of the path, a sign reads “Tarrey Town.” Apparently, Dan and Phil also neglected to tell Louis the  _ name _ of the town. It must be part of the whole ‘crazy secluded genius’ shtick.

The settlement…really isn’t much at all. It consists of a half dozen structures surrounding a Goddess statue in the center, and that’s just about it. But for such a tiny town, the businesses seem to be thriving—there’s a general store, a gem store and even a merchant selling machine parts. Louis wonders if those are the Ancient materials he’s supposed to be looking for. 

The other surprising thing is the diversity in the town. There can’t be many residents, for only having six houses, but Louis sees a young Goron carrying a pickaxe, an elderly Zora who walks hunched over, and a tall red-haired woman with deeply tanned skin. A Gerudo, he realizes, like Dua.

The Zora spots him first and waves at him. “Good evening, traveler! What brings you to Tarrey Town?”

“I’m looking for a Troye. His dads Dan and Phil told me to find him here.”

The Zora’s eyes widen. “Dan and Phil told you that?” he asks. “You actually talked to them? I thought they haven’t spoken to anyone in years.”

“That’s probably true. But yeah, I just came from their lab. They said Troye lives here now?”

“Did someone say my name?” says a new voice, and a Hylian about Louis’ age and height stands up from where he’d been kneeling in the front garden of one of the houses. “Hi, I’m Troye.”

“Louis.” They shake hands, and Troye grins at him. 

“Did my dads send you to check up on me?”

“Sort of, not really.” Louis shrugs. “They did want me to confirm you got here safely, which you—well, you’re here.”

“Here and alive,” Troye says with a nod. “Are they still the same as ever? Bickering and working and being weird?”

Louis couldn’t think of a better description of Dan and Phil if he tried. “Is that their normal?”

“Oh, yeah.” Troye laughs. “It made growing up fun, that was for certain. But what can I help you with?”

Right, the Guardian parts. “I’m supposed to find Ancient Gears and Ancient Shafts, and they said there’s a field full of dead Guardians near here. And they also said you’re good at harvesting parts.”

Troye lights up. “Fuck yeah, I’m down to harvest Guardian parts. It’s been a while, but I think I still have it. Come with me.” He takes Louis to the edge of town—literally—and points to the west. Down below, on the other side of the lake, Louis can make out the murky outlines of decaying Guardians through the mist. “Down there, in Torin Wetland. It’s a straight-up Guardian graveyard. You want to go right now?”

“Right now?” Louis shields his eyes, glancing up at the sun. “Think we can be back before dark?”

“If we go quickly. How many parts do you need? Well, actually, no,” Troye corrects himself “What do you want to make? ‘Cause I’m assuming you need parts for Dil.” 

“An Ancient Sword?”

Troye shakes his head. “Nah, just go with the arrows and a shield. The problem with the sword is that it’s a short one-handed sword, and you don’t really want to be close enough to a Guardian to use a sword if you can avoid it. But that’s just my opinion.”

“Well, if the arrows are just as effective, I should probably have more of those, then,” Louis decides. “Hey, maybe this is weird to ask. But is it just me or does calling the machine Dil sound like they just combined their names?”

“Oh, that’s exactly what they did to name it. It was either Dil or Phan and I said Phan sounded better, but they had to go with Dil.” Troye rolls his eyes. “My dads are weird. Ready to go?”

Louis isn’t sure how  _ ready _ he can be to paraglide down into a valley of Guardian corpses, but he says yes anyway. 

~

It turns out Troye also has a paraglider of sorts, though his comes with a harness that he can strap around his chest to leave his hands free as he glides. When Louis asks where he got it, Troye tells him he traded some rare armor for it in Rito Village several years ago. “The design is at least a hundred years old,” he says as he folds up the cloth and tucks it into a backpack, “but hey, it works.”

On the ground, the mist is even thicker, settling around the trees and the inactive Guardians like a blanket. Louis can hardly see, but Troye doesn’t seem bothered in the slightest.

“So…what do we do?” Louis whispers. He feels like he should whisper in this place—they’re supposedly all dead, but he can’t shake the feeling one of them could spring back to life and attack them at any moment.

“Follow me.” Troye walks over to a Guardian with rust eating away at its edges and moss growing over the legs. “If you look under here, most of the time, they’re kind of at an angle, and if they are, then you can get underneath,” he points out, lying on his stomach and motioning for Louis to do the same. Sure enough, it’s tilted where it’s half-buried, leaving the underside exposed. And right beneath it…

“Are those the Ancient things?” Louis asks as Troye picks up a four-inch screw with wings attached to the head. 

“This one’s an Ancient Screw,” Troye tells him. “If a Guardian is left to decay for a while, it’ll start coming apart. You know, rust, the elements, time, all that takes its toll. And when that happens, that’s when we can usually find stuff like this. Take these.” Together, they collect two Ancient Screws and something else that Troye tells him is an Ancient Spring, and when Louis stands up again the front of his shirt is covered in grass and dirt. 

“Wait, is that my shirt?” Troye asks suddenly.

Louis pauses in the middle of picking a leaf off his sleeve. “Um, yeah. Dan let me borrow it ‘cause my tunic was soaking wet when I showed up. Is that weird?”

“Nah, not at all.” Troye smiles at him. For someone who grew up with Dan and Phil for parents, Louis can’t help but be surprised at how disarmingly  _ normal _ Troye seems. “Next one?”

They split up, and for the next hour or so they harvest Guardian parts until Louis’ pack is weighed down from all the metal. There’s more Ancient Screws and Springs, as well as a handful of Ancient Shafts. “The only thing missing,” Troye tells him, “is a Giant Ancient Core, which you’ll want to make the shield. But Connor in town has one we can trade for.”

Connor. “The one with the gears on the table?”

“That’s him. He deals in Ancient parts.”

“Hang on. Are you telling me we could have bought these parts from him?” Louis holds up his heavy pack.

Troye chuckles. “No, no. He doesn’t have these parts. He just deals in rare ones, so don’t worry. I didn’t drag you all the way down here for no reason.” He looks up at the sky, quirking his mouth to one side. “We should probably head back. It’ll take about fifteen minutes to walk back up the path.”

The mountains are close to swallowing up the sun, and Louis knows they don’t have much daylight left. He still doesn’t like the idea of traveling at night, in case the skeletal monsters that attacked him when he left the Plateau make a reappearance. Troye doesn’t seem bothered, though, walking confidently between the Guardians like he knows they won’t touch him.

That’s when Louis hears the whirring sound. 

He stops short, a hand darting out to grab Troye’s arm. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

Louis puts a finger to his lips, and then the sound happens again. “That! It’s like…something’s moving?”

Troye’s face pales. “Fuck,” he whispers. “One of them’s alive.”

“Which one?”

Troye ducks behind a fallen log, peering over the top. Then, slowly, he extends an arm and points to the left. Louis follows his finger and claps a hand over his own mouth to keep from gasping out loud.

On the other side of the field, a Guardian walks by, fully functional, its eye glowing red and long spider-like legs propelling it forward at a terrifying speed. Louis has no doubt it could catch up to them in seconds. He crouches behind the log with Troye. “What do we do?”

Troye frowns. “Do you have any ancient weapons with you at all?”

Louis pulls out the one Ancient Arrow Dan had given him. “Just this.”

“That should be enough. We’re gonna go slowly and quietly. But get your bow ready just in case.” Troye waves, and Louis follow him, creeping along and trying to find cover behind whatever trees and dead Guardians they can. 

Suddenly, the whirring sound gets louder, and faster, and Louis sees a red dot blinking on the ground in front of them. 

“Move!” Troye shouts, crashing into Louis and tackling him to the ground as the section of the ground where they’d just been standing explodes and bursts into flames. “Shoot it in the eye!”

“Fuck!” Louis scrambles for his bow, nocking the arrow but by the time he’s ready to shoot, it’s circled around the other side of them. He can’t keep up. “Why do they move so fast?!”

“Just—” Troye yanks the bow right out of Louis’ hand, taking aim and loosing the arrow at the Guardian. The blue tip lands squarely in the center of its eye with a loud  _ clang _ , and the whole automaton seizes up. Sparks begin to spit from its legs, and Troye grabs Louis arm and pulls him away. “Take cover!”

Louis dives to the ground, arms covering his head as he hears the Guardian explode behind him. He counts to five in his head before looking up to see Troye holding out a hand to help him up. “Did you kill it?”

“Yup. One and done,” Troye tells him as they walk over to the burnt-out shell of the former Guardian. “And hey, more Ancient Springs.” As they’re picking those up, Louis swears he hears that same whirring sound again. 

“Fuck. More of them?” Louis reaches into his quiver. “I’m out of those.”

“Then we have to go  _ right now _ .” 

“Wait!” Louis pulls out the Sheikah Slate, tapping on the shrine next to the East Akkala Stable. He’s got no idea if they can warp out together, but there’s only one way to find out. “Hold onto me. This might feel weird.”

Troye gawks in amazement. “Is that a Sheikah Slate? Those are so cool!”

Louis pokes at the shrine, and they disappear in a flash of blue light. The last thing he sees before his vision goes white is the other Guardian’s bright pink eye, searching for them.

They land on the platform of the shrine in a tangle of limbs, a little battered but alive.

Troye pops up to his feet. “That was incredible! Isn’t Sheikah technology just the best? I could never give it up, honestly. I don’t know how Jade does it. I’d get so bored.”

Louis glances up the hill to where he can just see the faint glow of the blue fire outside Dan and Phil’s lab. “Should we head back to Tarrey Town for those other parts, or stop by your dads’ first?”

Troye shrugs. “It’s already dark and I don’t like walking at night, so let’s say hi to my dads. They’ll let us stay overnight, and we can just get the other parts from Connor in the morning.”

So for the second time that day, Louis finds himself trudging up the hill toward the lab with Troye in tow. “Dads, we’re home!” Troye calls out as he pushes the door open.

Somewhere in the lab, there’s a crash and then Dan appears, looking panicked. “Troye? What are you doing here?”

Troye runs up to Dan and throws his arms around him. “Surprise!”

“Is that our son?” Phil’s voice echoes from the upper floor. Louis hears footsteps, then a scream as he sees a blur of red plaid go tumbling down the stairs. “Ow.”

“You absolute fucking cactus.” Dan shakes his head, making no move whatsoever to help Phil up. “What did I tell you about running down the stairs with your socks on?”

“Some things don’t change, I guess,” Troye says with a smile. “Anyway, I’m back.”

“We can see that,” Phil says, popping up and straightening out his quiff. “Can we get you kids anything to eat or drink?”

“Soup?” Troye asks hopefully. 

Dan busies himself at the stove while Phil plunks four bowls on an empty table. “How did finding parts go?”

“Could be worse,” Louis says, opening his bag and pouring the contents onto the floor. “Troye took me to Torin Wetland and we found a bunch of parts.”

“We’ll need some other, rarer parts for the Ancient Shield, but we were going to head back into town tomorrow and trade Connor for them.”

“Connor?” Phil asks. “Is that—a good idea?”

Troye shrugs. “It’ll be fine. Anyway, just so you know, not all the Guardians in the wetland are dead. There are at least two still alive. Well, one now.”

“There’s what?” Dan returns to the table carrying a steaming hot pot of soup. 

“Live Guardians in Torin,” Phil tells him, helping Dan pour out the soup. 

“We got rid of one, but the rest…” Troye and Louis exchange a glance. “We warped straight here to get away from another.”

An uneasy silence settles over the table as the four of them eat. Dan is the first to push his bowl to the side, fingertips drumming on the table absently. “Then there are more still alive than we thought,” he says finally. “Unless…”

“…they’re being corrupted  _ again _ ,” Phil finishes. “Ganon’s power might be growing once again now that you’re awake, Louis. Like he knows you’re coming.”

Louis swallows thickly, his mouth going dry at the thought. “Great,” he manages. 

“Just a theory, of course,” Phil rushes to add. “It’s probably just a leftover. Probably.” 

“Well, that’s enough Guardian talk for the night, I think,” Dan declares, standing up and stretching. “Let’s get some sleep, all of us, and then we can deal with the other parts in the morning so Louis can be on his way.”

“Oh, you’re leaving already?” Troye says with a frown. “Where to?”

Louis points westward, where they can see the lava bubbling out of the volcanic crater, glowing a blinding yellow in the pitch-black night. “Death Mountain.”  

Dan makes a vague noise of agreement. “Oh, mood.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaand next chapter is where we finally meet niall and learn about ed, so get excited! as always, thank you so much for reading. come visit me on [tumblr](http://humhalleloujah.tumblr.com) !


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